Sports in Tamil Nadu
This article details these sports, both traditional and modern, that are commonly played in Tamil Nadu.
Silambam is a weapon-based Indian martial art originating in Tamil Nadu incorporating both offensive and defensive techniques.
It is an ancient contact sport whose origins can be traced back to about 4000 years ago during the Mahabharata period.
So far, India has been indomitable at all the international kabaddi tournaments and with seven World Cup titles and numerous Asian Games gold medals, the Indian men’s team is at the pinnacle of success.
Stamina and agility are two key strengths that are needed for this game and Tamil Nadu has done the country proud by producing many players who have been part of the winning national team.
Three or four-inch blades are attached to the cocks' feet and the winner is decided after three or four rounds of no holds barred fighting.
It involves basically fighting skills for your chicken.Now it is widely played in the places of North America and Asia Jallikattu is a popular bull taming sport practiced particularly during Pongal festival.
[5] Chess is believed to have originated in India, c. 280 – 550 CE,[6][7][8][9][10] where its early form in Tamil Nadu was known as Sathurangam literally four divisions [of the military] – infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariotry, represented by the pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, bishop, and rook, respectively.
The state has produced many grandmasters including Viswanathan Anand, one of the greatest and most versatile players of the modern era having won the World Chess Championship five times from 2002 to 2013.
Other notable players include R Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh D, S. Vijayalakshmi, P. V. Nandhidhaa, Aravindh Chithambaram, R Vaishali and Krishnan Sasikiran.
[12] Malyutham is a traditional Indian art of full contact grappling that originated in Tamil Nadu.
Notable international cricketers from Tamil Nadu include Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Kris Srikkanth, Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, Robin Singh, Murali Vijay, Ravichandran Ashwin, Dinesh Karthik, Sadagoppan Ramesh, Vijay Shankar, Washington Sundar, T. Natarajan, Murali Karthik, Subramaniam Badrinath and Lakshmipathy Balaji.
MRF Pace Foundation, a coaching clinic for training fast bowlers from all over the world is based in Chennai.
[20] Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu is planning to set up a hockey academy[21] Notable international players include Vasudevan Baskaran, Krishnamurthy Perumal, M. J. Gopalan, Dhanraj Pillay, Adam Sinclair and Mohammed Riaz.
Notable players are Ramesh Krishnan, Ramanathan Krishnan, Vijay Amritraj, Mahesh Bhupathi, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, Vijay Sundar Prashanth, N.Sriram Balaji and Nirupama Vaidyanathan.
Tamil Nadu becomes the factory of manufacturing the chess grandmasters like, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Dommaraju Gukesh, Vishwanathan Anand, and so on.
Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok, the only drivers from to represent India in Formula 1 hail from the state.
Other prominent racers include Parthiva Sureshwaren, Ashwin Sundar, N. Leelakrishnan, Raj Bharath and Ajith Kumar represented India.
Notable volleyball players include A. Palaniswamy, G. E. Sridharan and Tamil Nadu men's team won the Gold in National level competition held in 2011.
[27] Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal are the notable squash players who won gold at the Commonwealth games.
[28] Archery, boxing, carrom, shooting, weightlifting, martial arts, snooker, golf, bowling, and squash also feature among sports played.
Mariyappan Thangavelu has won the gold medal in the finals of 2016 Summer Paralympic games held in Rio de Janeiro.
