Roller skating is a popular sport in the World sporting scene and Mysuru has been a centre in our country which has gone on to produce quality skating champions who have gone on to represent the country on at various Championships. One such champion roller skater is 22-year-old National roller skating champion Akash Aradhya from our city. Akash is the current National champion and in this year’s National Championship held at Pune, he won gold in 500m rink race, silver in 1000m rink race, bronze in marathon event and gold in relay in the men’s section representing Karnataka. He has been representing India in the World and Asian level and Asian Games (2010) for the last six year’s in roller skating and he is the only one roller-skater who has been recommended by the Roller-Skating Federation of Karnataka for the ‘Ekalavya Award’ which is to be given away in Mysuru on May 10, 2016. He is our ‘Star This Week.’
A B.com graduate, Akash is the son of Nagabushan Aradhya (Chartered Accountant) and Rekha Aradhya, residents of Chamarajapuram in Mysuru. Akash trains with K. Srikanth Rao, Indian coach and Ekalavya Awardee, at the Rao’s Roller skating Club in city. Earlier, Rao’s elder brother late K. Sridhar Rao had spotted Akash’s talent and had also coached him.
Akash has represented India in the Asian Games in 2010 at China in roller skating. Akash is also the present Ice-skating National Champion in the senior men’s section. He is presently training in at Vancover in Canada, in order to prepare himself to take part in the winter Olympics to be held at South Korea in 2018. The Ice-Skating Association of India, has selected three skaters — Akash (Karnataka), Sohan Arkar (Mumbai) and S. Paul (Hyderabad) — for the training and have given them Rs.5 lakh grant for their training abroad.
Akash in order to qualify for the Winter Olympics has to take part in two World Championships and attain the qualifying mark for the Championships. He will take part in the World Ice-Skating Championships to be held in Vancouver, Canada in June 2016 and Insel, Germany in October 2016 in the Short-track Ice-Skating category. Akash will also take part in the Asian and World championships in roller skating to be held at China this year.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports News / May 08th, 2016