From the comfortable confines of the Hussain Sagar, the open seas can be quite frightening. So did it scare young Ananya Chouhan and she seriously contemplated quitting the Yachting Association of India's (YAI) senior national championships at Mumbai last week.
After much persuasion, the 15-year-old decided to stay back in the metropolis and give the contest a shot. Not surprisingly, the gritty girl struck silver in the women's section of the Laser Radial category. That she finished second only to Nethra Kumaran was truly commendable.
Slight of build, Ananya had lost to a more powerfully built opponent. Moreover, the Tamil Nadu Sailing Association yachtswoman had trained hard in Israel. The swells and the 10-knot winds of Mumbai favoured the Chennai lass, since she practised more often in coastal conditions, quite different from those of land-locked Hussain Sagar where Anaya hd trained!
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What sets apart Ananya is how quick a learner she has been, having taken to the sport only two years ago. That she has risen through the ranks demonstrates her grasp of sailing tactics besides her understanding of the elements, so crucial to the sport, most dependent perhaps on the surroundings and environment. That the tenth standard student and Sports Captain of Gitanjali Devshala, Secunderabad has steadily worked her way up, is evident from an impressive track record. She clinched gold in the girls under-16 years category of the Laser sailing championships in Hussain Sagar a couple of months ago in the Laser 4.7 section.
She also dominated the Telangana sailing week in June, taking the gold medal and the winner cup. In the ASAF Youth Cup held in Hong Kong in February, she finished third among the women. Last December at Bhopal, she claimed bronze in the National Optimist Inland championship. Thrice she walked away with the Best Girl Sailor Trophy in the National Topper (July 2014) and the National Optimist Inland championships (July 2014 and December 2013).
Having received huge support from the EME Sailing Association (EMESA), Ananya now aspires to participate at the 2016 World Championships. The YAI, as part of its development plan, has already identified her medal potential for the 2018 Asian Games. The biggest hurdle for the bespectacled lass is the finances, quite to difficult for her parents to cope with in the absence of any form of sponsorship.
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