Lucknow: His passion to perform in the Olympics motivated him to practice with a handcrafted bamboo stick javelin presented to him by father at the age of around 12. Rohit Yadav is now 21 and he has already proved his mettle in javelin throw at national and international levels.
A resident of Dabiya village of Machhlishahr in Jaunpur district, Rohit considers Jan Zelezny, who holds the world record with a throw of 98.48 metres and of course national hero Neeraj Chopra as his idols.
Talking to TOI, Rohit said he was in class eight when for the first time his father brought a bamboo stick and gave it a javelin shape. “He then took me to a nearby field and showed me how it was thrown,” Rohit said and added that he found it very interesting and started practicing with it every day.
Recalling his school days, he said that for the first time at his school’s annual sports day he could achieve a throw of only 28 metre. “It was a bad day for me as I failed to bag any award. The same day I took a pledge that I would work hard to improve my throw,” he said, adding that he got full support from his father who himself was a long distance runner who used to participate in 21-km and 42-km marathons.
Rohit said that one day he read in a newspaper that railway trials were going on at Sigra stadium in Varanasi. He immediately rushed to the stadium to register his name as at that time he did not even know that he was not eligible to participate in it. Finally, in 2015 he got an opportunity to take part in school level national games in Kerala. He won gold there with a throw of 66.46-metre.
The event also proved a turning point for Rohit who next year (2016) took part in the world school under-19 games in Turkey. He again bagged gold there with the throw of 72m. But till then Rohit did not have his personal javelin. Rohit’s father then contacted his friend Bhaskar Desai in Mumbai and requested him to arrange a good javelin for his son. Desai, who knew well that his friend could not purchase a javelin for his son, gifted a 700 gram javelin to Rohit.
Rohit, who will now represent the country in the Commonwealth Games this year, is confident of returning with flying colours. “I will give my 100%. My dream is to bring glory to my country by winning medals in the Commonwealth and Olympic Games,” he added.
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