Four young sailors of the Yacht Club Foundation of Hyderabad have been selected to join the Army Boys Sports Company (ABSC) of Madras Engineer Group, Bengaluru. Among them is 10-year-old Manideep Perakatta, a student of Alpha Omega School and the son of a migrant worker couple.
State champ selected too
The other three picked by the ABSC include Mahatma Jyotiba Phule school boys 13-year-old Nitin Nayak from Achampet (Nagarkurnool), who was the State under-18 champion, apart from Abiram Kavarala (Wanaparthy) and Harshavardhan Yerra (Vikarabad).
Interestingly, Rasoolpura here has produced 20 State-level and national-level medallists, including three national champions with most of them hailing from Udbhav School, supported by the IIM-Ahmedabad Alumni Association, said Suheim Sheikh, president of the Yacht Club of Hyderabad. He added that the selection process was a stringent one, spread over five days, which tested the sailing skills of these youngsters in fitness, bone structure and track record in the nationals.
“My coach, Suheim sir, had been encouraging me to work hard on my fitness. When I was not helping my parents in our farm, I used to do a lot of stamina and strength training. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, my education came to a halt and the training proved to be of great benefit,” said Nitin.
Harshavardhan, son of a farmer from Chilkur, said he trained with dedication for the past three years and now that his efforts have paid off, the hard work was worth it.
A delighted Lt.Gen. K.S. Rao, India’s first circumnavigator and president of Telangana Sailing Association, hopes the selection of the four boys would inspire more youngsters to take up sailing as a sport.
Suheim revealed that they have a unique programme with the biggest fleet of 140 boats and 600 sailors in the Sailing School and so far, have trained 70 medallists. Of them, 12 were recruited by the Army.