K. R. Rohit was ecstatic as he strode on to the stage to receive the rolling trophy for ‘outstanding achievement in sports’ from Indian chess grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand at his school on Friday. The event, held to felicitate the World Chess Champion, was organised by the management, staff and students of Don Bosco School.
A student of class XI, Rohit has been a State table tennis champion for more than four years now, and has been playing the game for six. He has bagged prizes at several tournaments, in the State as well as at the national level, and in the under-16 category. He has now secured the second rank in the State and a bronze medal nationally.
The award aims to inspire all children to aspire and is presented to students who make a mark in fields other than academics. But Rohit has managed to balance his performance in both extracurricular activities and academics. He bagged the first position in his school with a 98.4 per cent in class X. “It is challenging at times to balance studies and the tournaments. But I can cope,” he said. Apart from table tennis, Rohit takes an interest in books and music too. Apart from taking up his passion for table tennis professionally, he is also interested in pursuing medicine.
Rohit’s inspiration comes from a similar former student of the school, chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand. While his teachers shared memories of Mr. Anand’s school days, and appreciated his efforts at encouraging other students to take up chess, Mr. Anand expressed his gratitude and praised the school’s attitude towards sports. “It is very difficult to be a good sportsperson if you’re fighting everyone around. But I never felt that way here. I always got leave to go for a tournament. And at that time it wasn’t normal for a school to show so much support,” he said. The event also marked the 25th reunion of his batch at Don Bosco. Apart from being happy about coming back to school, Mr. Anand was excited at the prospect of meeting his classmates.
“We’re all going to behave like 16-year-olds today,” Mr. Anand said. Mr. Anand was felicitated by the school principal Father Y. L. Irudayaraj and was also presented with mementos. for to felicitate his impressive performance at chess.
