56th National Roller Skating Championship kicks off with fervour

​Visakhapatnam: Minister for HRD Ganta Srinivasa Rao inaugurated the 56th National Roller Skating Championship competitions at skating complex, VUDA Park on the beach front here on Tuesday.

While speaking on the occasion, Ganta Srinivasa Rao said that Andhra Pradesh government is giving equal priority to sports and games after the education. He said that the government is promoting several national and international events in the state particularly in the Visakhapatnam city. He assured to conduct national and international level skating competitions in Visakhapatnam.

President of Roller Skating Federation of India Tulasi Ram Agarwal said that India is competing with the China for the bidding to host Asian Championship. If, everything goes well, Visakhapatnam city would host the Asian Roller Skating Championship, he added.

Speaking to media persons here on Tuesday on the opening day of National Roller Skating Championship, Agarwal said that Visakhapatnam city has better chances than Delhi, if India gets the opportunity. 

He added, Visakhapatnam have facilities to host all the ten events of the roller skating including Speed, Artistic, Roller Hockey, Inline Hockey, Inline Freestyle, Inline Alpine, Inline Downhill, Roller Derby, Roller Freestyle and Skateboarding, which is an Olympic event.

Agarwal hoped that India would get the chance to host the championship and Visakhapatnam would become the favourite venue. Agarwal said that 154-member Indian contingent won 86 medal in the Asian Roller Skating Championship held in South Korea this year. The Asian Roller Skating committee would visit Visakhapatnam and Delhi in the next month to assess the facilities, he said.

Interestingly, for the first time in the history of roller skating in India competitions in all ten events are conducive in the Visakhapatnam Vizag. Around 2,500 skaters are participating in the present national championship started in VUDA Park skating complex. Andhra Pradesh is in fray with 248 skaters including roller hockey and inline hockey.

Federation secretary Naresh Sharma, Vice President Prasanna Kumar and AP association president N Raghupati Raju were also present.