The “TEJO” (Colombian sport)

Tejo is a Colombian national sport, it is also named “Turmequé”, and this sport started 500 years ago in Boyacá. In this article you are going to learn about the origin of this sport, the stuff that you need to play it and how to play it.

What is the origin?

Muiscas were the first players of this sport when it was named “Turmequé” and was one of the activities to do in their celebrations. At that time, the “Turmequé” was played with a gold disk, it name was "zepguagoscua" and the natives got it changing different things with other natives from different regions of Colombia, in exchange for the gold disk.

The government chose the Tejo like the Colombian national sport in 2000.

What do you need to play?

You don’t need specific clothes like shorts or special t-shirts and tennis shoes. You only need to feel comfortable. To play you need two fields clay, a tejo (the metal disk that replaced the gold disk) and the “mechas” (paper cut in triangle way filled with gunpowder).

Field clay - a tejo - "mechas"

How to play?

This sport is very easy to play individually or in teams; you don’t need to be an expert. The objective is to throw the tejo to the field clay and landing it inside a metal circle named “bocín”, where you have put the “mechas” before. To win the game it is necessary to obtain 27 points, exploding the “mechas” and introducing the tejo inside of the bocín.