Roller Skating, which started as a recreational activity, has slowly transformed into a sport. Ever since the sport was introduced in Mysuru, the city has become a hub of roller skating with many youngsters and children taking to this sport. Among the champions who have emerged out of our city is Akash Aradhya.
This talented roller skater too was conferred with Ekalavya Award for his achievements in roller skating. Having started to practice roller skating at the age of three-and-a-half years, Akash has gone on to become one of the emerging stars of the game. Akash’s achievements in roller skating has been tremendous with him winning gold medals in Senior National Roller Skating Championships held in 2011, 2012 and 2013. He was also part of Indian team which participated at Asian Games held at China in 2010, Asian Championships held at China in 2014 and other international championships.
Speaking to Star of Mysore, Akash expressed his happiness over being recognised by Government of Karnataka for his achievements. “Roller Skating is a smaller sport compared to Lawn Tennis and Cricket. The game is also tougher as it needs continuous practice and physical fitness. The competition in roller skating is such that I had to wait for six years to get into the national side,” he added.
He also thanked his coaches Srikanth Rao and State Roller Skating Association for the support extended to him and fellow roller skaters in the State.
A B.Com graduate from D. Banumaiah College in city, Akash aims to follow his father Nagabhushan Aradhya’s footsteps to become a successful Chartered Accountant. Currently, his focus is to represent the country in the Winter Olympics to be held at PyeongChang, South Korea in 2018. He has been training for the past three months at Calgary in Canada.
Akash Aradhya’s mother R.C. Rekha, expressing joy on her son being honoured with the prestigious Ekalavya Award, said that the efforts of her son had yielded fruit and she wanted him to achieve much higher feats in roller skating.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / May 14th, 2016