For the 16-year-old skater K. Chetan Reddy, the sojourn to Taiwan (Chinese Taipei) to take part in the world artistic roller skating championship, was a learning curve for, he returned with more maturity. Chetan, part of the 11-member Indian team, finished seventh in the competition.
This senior intermediate Sri Gayathri student, member of Andhra Pradesh team, was selected for the Indian team after the trials at Visakhapatnam and Ahmedabad. “I am a trainee at the rink behind DRRMC Indoor Stadium and P. Satyanarayana is my coach. I drew inspiration from my mother – Vijayalakshmi who is also a skater,” said Chetan.
Chetan said his performance on the rink was based on short and long programmes. “The duration of the short programme is two minutes and 20 seconds and long is three minutes and 30 seconds. The skater accrues points based on his jumps, rotation, landing and speed,” he added.
He said that his fellow competitors scored more points as they succeeded in performing more rotations, more jumps with better speed. “I was found wanting in rotations and speed. I need to add more rotations and also increase my speed”, he opined.
He said competitions abroad were held in indoor stadiums on wooden flooring and majority of the skaters from India, who were used to train on concrete flooring, found the going tough. Chetan took up skating when he was a toddler of four-years and for the past 12 years, the teenager is pursuing the sport with a singular motto to win a medal in the world championships. “Though I missed this year, I will prepare for the next with determination,” he signs off.
