Lack of skating rink mars competitive edge

Visakhapatnam: Even though three skaters from Vizag have made the country proud, but still having an indoor stadium with wooden skating rink to train themselves in a world-class environment to give competition to skaters from other nations in the international events seems to be a distant dream as no one has come forward to support the skaters for set up of wooden skating rink.

According to experts, it will cost around Rs 3-4 crore for setting up a wooden skating rink in indoor stadium. The wooden skating rink will help the skaters to prove their talent in various international events.

Lack of wooden skating rink has also been resulting in a loss of interest in pursuing a sport by some athletes as they realised a fact along the course that they stand less chance of winning in international events.

For instance, Vizag has produced a few brilliant skaters such as Avani Panchali, Goli Lalith Aditya, Mallipeddi Praneeta, Rokhaiyya Farheen Shaik, Rayudu Arun Kumar and few others have brought glory to the city at national and international events but many of them says that they never got opportunity to train them in a world-class environment to give competition to Chinese skaters, who train with superior infrastructure.

Speaking to The Hans India, a young skater Rayudu Arun Kumar said, “We do not have wooden skating rinks in India. But, in recent times Andhra Pradesh Government and some political leaders promised in various occasions that they will make Vizag as a hub of sports in AP.

We have been demanding to set up wooden skating rink in Vizag under public-private partnership (PPP) mode, but our demands have been throwing into dustbins.”

“It is very difficult to compete with the skaters of China in the international events as they train on wooden skating rink, which are used in the international events,” said skaters Rokhaiyya Farheen Shaik and Nisank Boppana.

Akula Pavan Kumar, an international skating coach, said that cement or concrete court prove detrimental to athletes’ knees in the long-term and results in a decrease in lifespan of an athlete and decreased performance efficiency. He also added that many of Roller Skating Association of AP says they have been approaching sports administrators but we have not got any positive result so far in this regard.