Quick Info→
Age: 29 Years
Hometown: Meerut, Uttar Pradesh
Profession: Indian Athlete (Javelin Throw)
Some Lesser Known Facts About Annu Rani
Annu Rani is a female Indian Athlete in the Javelin Throw category. She broke her own record at the World’s Athletics Championship during its qualification round.
She failed to breach the qualification marks at the World’s Athletics Championships. However, she qualified for the Tokyo Olympics based on the World ranking which happened to be 18th position.
Annu Rani at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics
She revealed in an interview that
Javelin is all about technique. Of course, power does matter, but I think I have enough strength to throw long. It is about fine-tuning the technique, and once that is done, I am confident of breaching the qualification mark. In this sport, you can make up 3-4 metres just by getting your technique right.”
During her childhood, she is a type of girl whose focus is mainly on her game rather than making Rotis or firing up the hearth like any other typical Indian girl. She has no desire to cook or get married early. She picked up the sport early at the age of 24, she broke her own records multiple times. Her village is a conservative one where women would always remain under their veils and inside their homes.
She is a brave and focused girl who knows whats she needs to do to achieve her goal. She got good support from her brother who identified her potential during a cricket game when she could throw the ball a long way standing at the boundary ropes. Her brother would bear all the training expenses.
During her initial days, she made her spear using bamboo as she could not afford the real one. She would travel 13 km daily to practice this game on an empty ground. She many times faced disapproval from her father and farmers in the nearby areas.
Seeing her performance, Kashinath Naik a commonwealth Bronze Medalist was eager to train her at an international level. But this would mean that he need to convince her father to allow her to train away from the home. His father agreed and Annu Rani finally became a student of Kashinath in 2013. Annu Rani was then trained at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala.
She would practice the Javelin throw almost 80 times a day. With that, she also does intense weight training lifting 180 kg to build her physique up to the endured level. The weight of her Javelin is around 600g. She would use the heavier Javelin to gain a better level of strength.
Under Naik’s coaching, she broke the national record of 58.83 metres at National Inter-state Championship set by herself in 2014 in Incheon. Later in the same year, she broke it again at the Asian Games with a throw of 59.53m winning the bronze medal at the Incheon, South Korea. It was the first medal of her life.
Annu Rani at Incheon, South Korea
The succeeding year, was not all that great for Annu Rani as she succumbed to multiple injuries. But very next year in 2016, Annu Rani made a fighting comeback beating her record for the third time with the throw of 60.01m at the 56th Open National Athletics Championship. This was the first time that an Indian woman was crossing 60m.
Her performance continued thereafter as she recorded a throw of 61.86m at the Federation Cup National Senior Athletics Championships on 4 June 2017. With this, she sealed the berth for the Athletics World’s Championship in 2017 and also became the first Indian woman to do so.
While representing her state Uttar Pradesh, she hurled the spear to 62.34m nearly half a meter more than her previous record of 61.86m. She cleared the qualifying standard of 61.50m for the World Championships to be held in Doha in 2019.
She then had her best throw of 60.22m at the World Championships held in Doha at the 23rd Asian Athletics Championships on 21 April 2019 winning the silver medal for the country.
Continuing her good form, Annu Rani bagged a gold medal women’s javelin throw event at the 59th National Open Athletics Championships in October 2019. She had a comfortable win at the Birsa Munda Athletics Stadium with a score of 56.97m, 55.97m, 58.31m, 57.29m, 56.86 before securing the title of 58.60m.