Credit: Special Arrangement
Bengaluru: Skating does not pull the Indian sporting mainstream’s attention and certainly does not catch the eye of many tweens.
In a country where every kid, in almost every street, aspires to play cricket or football, KR Nishchit, an eight-year-old from Bengaluru, is one of those exceptions, attempting beyond just the normal.
With each morning, that endeavor only grew bigger with him until he was strong enough to wear his skates and fly on a rink to become the youngest in the Karnataka’s Achievers Book of Records, winning 16 medals at just six.
Ram Charan, an athlete himself, played cricket at the school and club level, and the sporting bug has bitten his son Nishchit as well.
That resulted in him joining the AVS Academy at four and a half years old. Nishchit is now eight and has an array of medals hanging in his house.
“So it happened during Covid. Kids in the streets were skating, he wanted to learn but was very young. Then we came across a skating arena that was inaugurated in our area, and we put him there; that’s how it all began,” Ram Charan tells DH.
What started off as a way to spend time during lockdown, has now taken more than half of Nishchit’s day.
“Coaching starts at six in the morning. We get there at 5:40 am. The class goes on for an hour. He then attends school and returns home by 3:30. He then completes his homework before he goes to play with his friends. At around 7, he attends skating practice again for an hour, which has only professionals in the academy.”
The training doesn’t stop there. That’s just the five-day cycle. And on weekends, when there’s no school, Nishchit travels 15-20 km from home for road practice at 5:45 am in the morning.
This schedule, almost a seven-day training week, is tough but it has not stopped Nishchit. And the results? Racing through career checkpoints, of course.
“He started getting medals in school and that motivated him to practice more. He was picked from the district selections in Bangalore. He progressed into the state selections, before getting picked for the India nationals. So the progress has been good,” points out Ram Charan.
Nishchit, however, is a kid of few words and a lot of his talking is done through his skates.
“I picked skating because I like to go fast and one day I want to become an international skater for my country...”
While the path in age groups might have seen a steady rise, it has not all been easy for the Bengaluru boy.
“He was on the other side of the exit group in both age groups 5-7 and 6-8, dealing with tougher competition, racing against kids who were more mature. There was a certain dip last year. However, he has been training hard,” Charan added.
Going international remains Nishchit’s ultimate finish line with wheels under his feet, but for now, it will be one step at a time. And that starts in Gurgaon in two months time at the CBSE Nationals, where he will be one among the few skaters from South Zone.