World Athletics Championships fourth-place finisher Sachin Yadav’s wish for a javelin training machine will soon be fulfilled with the Mission Olympic Cell approving its procurement.
The Javelin Throwing Machine, modelled along the lines of the Kraft Trainings Gerät (KTG), used by German athletes over the years, will be installed at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.
The throwing machine develops javelin-specific strength and release speed through weighted sled throws. The machine has a sled attached to it, which weighs 3.8 kilograms and it can be loaded with as much as 10kg for a maximum weight of 13.8 kg. Athletes can push the sled at an upward angle.
Uwe John, the only athlete to throw over 100 metres and Neeraj Chopra’s former coach, was one of the first to use the machine in the 1980s in Germany.
India had earlier become the third country, after Germany and China, to have such specialized equipment when a machine similar to the Kraft Training Gerät was installed by the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala, in 2021 for elite throwers including Chopra and Shivpal Singh, ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.
According to a SAI source, Sachin’s proposal that was cleared by the MOC, involves financial assistance of ₹22 lakh for the procurement of advanced strength, conditioning and recovery equipment, with the centrepiece being a specialised javelin throwing machine. In addition to the javelin throwing machine, the approved proposal includes a range of strength and conditioning equipment such as parallel bars, multifunction horizontal bars, hanging rings, medicine balls, hurdles, as well as specialised shoes, physiotherapy and recovery aids.
Sachin Yadav, 25, is part of the TOPS Development group and is currently training at the JLN Stadium under coach Naval Singh. He had a breakthrough season in 2025 with silver medal at the Asian Athletics Championships and a fourth place finish at World Championships in Tokyo. He finished ahead of double Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra and current Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem.
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The 167th meeting of MOC this week saw a total of Rs 1.40 crore being approved towards athlete proposals.
Neeraj’s pre-season
PTI adds: Two-time Olympic medal-winning Indian javelin throw star Neeraj Chopra has begun his pre-season training in his preferred South African base of Potchefstroom after the Sports Ministry’s Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) approved a 32-day camp for him under new coach Jai Chaudhary. Chopra parted ways with Czech legend Jan Zelezny as his coach last week, deciding to partner with Chaudhary, who was his formative coach and trains javelin throwers in Panipat, which is the superstar’s home town. The 28-year-old will stay in Potchefstroom, a major training base for javelin throwers from across the world, till February 5 and the total sanctioned government assistance for him stands at Rs 11.80 lakh, a source in the Sports Authority of India (SAI) told PTI.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
