The first time I met Sakshi Sagar Shah was at Wallride Park’s Revjam in May 2019. Sporting a turquoise T-shirt and black jeans, the teen had zipped along the pump track with ease, her ponytail a neat, dark strip behind her. She revealed she would be representing Telangana and India in the World Skate’s World Roller Games (WRG) in Barcelona, one of the biggest extreme sports competitions out there. One can expect a variety of thrilling disciplines such as inline hockey, alpine roller-blading and scooter, among others.
The 16-year-old from Gujarat who resides in Hyderabad competed in WRG’s roller-freestyle section in which 24 countries, including India, from July 5 to July 7. “Everyone did so well and you couldn’t even imagine how nice they were too,” she recalls. “In our discipline, I really loved that we didn’t compete in the spirit of competing; we keep helping each other and exchanging ideas.”
Prep was incredibly important to Sakshi, whose first professional competition was, in fact, WRG. She’d been actively practising at Wallride Park and her coach Jitender Gupta has also been incremental in her growth. “I’m a student of L B Stadium where I do fitness everyday. My coach, who called me for motivation before I competed, also had me doing a lot of gymnastics, because we need to flip and turn 360-degrees and jump higher. Using the whole body is a form of gymnastics and helps with maintenance of balance.”
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Freestyle rollerblading requires a lot of ‘being in the moment’ and even more focus to adapt to the different environments. When asked if she had a chance to adapt, she responds, “YouTube helps with examining environments and my coach too has been very helpful in the training. Thing is, over here there’s no one of this discipline; there’s no infrastructure, especially if you’re thinking of the height of the ramp. At Wallride Park, the height of the ramp isn’t even half of that in Barcelona. That said, the challenge changes. There’s also not much practise time because they build the ramps in Barcelona only two days before the competition, so it was difficult to climb the ramps properly. Mentally and emotionally, there’s a lot of pressure when observing the other tricks and stunts at WRG. After all, I was representing India at WRG.”
That said, Sakshi shares she made it through the first round (Qualifiers) with 22,33 points but not through to the next (Quarter Finals), adding she doesn’t feel bad because it simply fuelled her up for more. “See, I knew I wouldn’t make it so far because our infrastructure and intensity of practise wasn’t as strong as other countries,” Sakshi admits, “and having come back, I would really like to work with organisations and sports venues to help better the infrastructure and support. The government can have a hand in that, big time.”
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WRG has taught the sportswoman a great deal more about herself, “I have such a long way to go! I need to practice more. I’ve learned to be true to myself because I know my friends in the sport. I went to WRG with a lot of ambition and, of course, I had some big hopes and expectations around a potential placement. But seeing the whole scene there, I learned where I need to be and how to motivate myself.”