Icing on the cake for Andhra boys

Four thousand kilometers away from home, these four skaters from Andhra Pradesh are battling it out in the speed skating event at the...

Four thousand kilometers away from home, these four skaters from Andhra Pradesh are battling it out in the speed skating event at the 5th National Winter Games 2008. With one of them getting silver medals in the 500m and the 1000m event, they are making some heads turn. The reason: these kids come from a place where there is no ice to skate on.

These skaters, who have trained in roller skating, put it simply when questioned about the transition, “The movement is almost the same.” Kirat Singh Gandhi, 15, is a national champion in roller skating and has already won silver medals in two events, with one event still to go. His competitors say that he has a good chance of winning a third medal. Says Ravi Dillon from the Delhi team: “I have been competing with and against him for the last four years. He has got the skill to win.”

Gandhi says that when he came to know about the event, he practised hard on roller skates. “I reached Gulmarg three days before the event and practised on the ice rink. I applied the same principle of roller skating in ice skating and it worked.”

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Gandhi says his father supported him fully. “While my father gave me the money to reach here, my teachers have promised coaching when I get back,” Gandhi says.

It was not easy for the others, though. Sheikh Khaja Mohiyuddin, whose father expired some time back, had to earn 50 per cent of the money to make it. The rest was sponsored by his District Collector (Gunter). But Shamseer Ahmed could not get sponsorship from his District Collector and had to ask his brother to cough up the money. But what is the motivation for all this, considering the fact that Winter Games have little following. “National recognition,” they echo.