Javelin, one of the traditional sports of the Turks, is played by mounted soldiers in history to improve their ability to ride horses and use spears. It is also known as “jereed”. Today, this horse-riding game is a sport with rules that aims the athlete on the horse to throw the javelin accurately at the opponent. In Turkish societies struggling with the difficult conditions of steppe life, riding horses, throwing arrows and javelins was natural for everyone. Horse races and various competitions were held in spring festivals with saz, folk songs and fun. In the weddings, the bride’s side and the groom’s side formed two separate teams for javelin. People have protected a flat or grassy area as a wrestling and javelin field in every village and town where they lived. In the 16th century, it began to be seen as a war game by the Ottoman Turks, and in the 19th century it became the biggest sports show and game of the Ottoman State and its palaces. It was a form of entertainment as well as military training. After the Republic, the first jereed club was established in Erzurum in 1957, and later on, the sport began to be performed professionally all over Anatolia. The game is still played on the second Sunday in September in Erzurum. In addition, it maintains its vitality abroad in Iran, Afghanistan and Turkestan.
It is played on a field with soft soil. At both ends of the field are designated 7-meter-wide "regimental stops" and immediately in front of them are "forbidden areas" that are 5 meters wide. The 7-meter sections extending from the forbidden area to the center line are called the shooting range and are indicated by dashed lines. The competition starts with 7 horses and players from both teams and if a team has less than five horses and players, it is considered defeated. With the referee's signal, a player from the team with the first right to attack advances to the opposing team's shooting range. He says the name of a player on the opposing team, then throws the javelin towards him and starts to run back towards his own area. Another player from the team to which the javelin was thrown starts following the opponent who is trying to return to his place nd throws the javelin towards him. The game continues in this way.
