Report: National Skating Championships, Day 3

It was an action packed day 3 at the Nationals. The morning had the finals of the rink 5 and the rink 2A races. As usual the events began from the lower age groups. And once again, the really exciting races only began at the 10-12 age group. In the girls, what started out as a close race ended up being a walkover for Rea Elizabeth Achiah of Karnataka who won the gold with a sizeable lead.

In the boys, there was a crash in the beginning of the race and Hrithik Karadi grabbed the opportunity to win his 3^rd gold and secure his individual championship. 12-14 boys Siddharth Kamale of Maharashtra won the gold in a hard fought fight to the finish. The girl’s 14-16 race was won by Musckaan Chauhan of Haryana followed by Akhila Roy Chowdhury of Karnataka. The next race in the same age group was won by Yashas Shankar and Prathik Prasad of Karnataka taking gold and silver.

The atmosphere up until now was electric as tension coursed through everyone present. But this was nothing compared to the atmosphere surrounding the above 16 age group races. That was on a whole different level. Varsha Puranik led the girl’s race from start to finish. There were a few seconds where it looked like Kanika Bhalla of Gujarat would overtake her but Varsha managed to hold on to her position to secure her gold medal.

The last rink 5 race was the above 16 men’s race. The 3 athletes who were the ones competing for gold stayed together at the back of the pack until the last 2 laps. Varshith Venugopal of Karnataka led the onslaught followed closely by Nikhilesh Tabhane of Maharashtra and G.V Raghavendra of Karnataka. These 3 skaters quickly built up a lead and by the last lap, Nikhilesh had taken over in first place, with Raghavendra in second followed by Varshith. In the final stretch however, Varshith put in a last sprint and a split to take the silver. Nikhilesh won the gold and Raghavendra captured the bronze medal.

The point to point events were held that evening. The 12-14 girls race was won by Tejaswini of Karnataka. The boys race was won by a huge margin by Ashish from Tamil Nadu, who had a successful breakaway from the group a little more than halfway through the race. The 14-16 girls race was close with Anushree Chauhan from Maharashtra beating Akhila Roy Chowdhury of Karnataka narrowly to take the gold. Simran of Haryana won the bronze medal.

In the boys, Tejeshwar of Tamil Nadu won the race comfortably with Harshveer of Punjab clinching the silver. The above 16 women’s race was won by Aarathy Kasturiraj of Tamil Nadu followed by Kanika Bhalla and Anoli Shah of Gujarat. The senior men’s race was basically a one man show with Varshith Venugopal winning very comfortably. That was the end of the day’s events. Tomorrow’s agenda includes the rink 4 or 500m races, the rink 2 races and the state relays.