Bengaluru, March 30: The story of Ishwariya Ganesh unfolded in the blue of the Chennai Sea. And now the youngster is confident of securing an Olympic berth.
Ishwariya has been Sailing Junior Class Optimist Boats in the Chennai Sea from 2014 till 2017.
What sets her apart from her contemporaries is the fact that she didn’t restrict herself to the available Sailing Boat classes, but started exploring more challenging New Sailing Classes. She decided to start Windsurfing, but the nearest windsurfing training centre from her home is in Goa which is about 900 kms away. Windsurfing is a surface water sports that is a combination of surfing and sailing.
But as the saying goes where there’s a will there’s a way. And so she overcame her obstacles and found a way to follow her passion. What she did was she visited Internet centre and went on YouTube to watch videos of windsurfer’s. She used to browse the Internet for hours learning the technical know-how, training drills, sail trimming and even down to fitness exercises related to windsurfing. Her first windsurfing board purchased from Goa was a junior class equipment -Techno 293. She learned to manure on the windsurfing board in the Besant nagar Beach, Kovalam back water and in Palar river with the help of local fishermen.
She put to test her newly acquired skills by competing in the Goa Sailing week and in Singapore open windsurfing championship held in January and February 2018 and won medals in both the Junior Events. By mid-2018 she started practising in the Tamil Nadu Sailing Club with her new RS One youth class Windsurfing equipment imported from France.
In less than a year she won two Silver medals in the National youth Open championship. She participated in all junior, youth & senior windsurfing events held in India. Her Father, mother and younger brother Sachin (B squad windsurfer) used to accompany her for weeks in her travel and self-funding was not a problem for them.
She reduced depending on online videos and preferred face to face human interaction, practise and training with Senior National Champions like Jerome, Prakash and Derrick.
In 2019 she procured her Olympic Class RSX women’s windsurfing equipment and started practice. RSX windsurfing in India has always been a male dominated territory. It takes the highest level of Endurance and courage to participate in Senior National Open Championship usually organised by Indian Army and Indian Navy. Having competed at all RSX National championships over the past 3 years, Ishwariya is counting on this experience where she was the lone women competing with the best Men Windsurfers in India.
Today she is the reigning National champion for consecutive 3 years and now she is in Oman to qualify for Tokyo Olympics. The Mussanah Open Championship event is an Asian sailing Olympic Qualifier for 2020 Olympics.
In spite of having zero international exposure, she is confident in securing an Olympic berth - a place where no Indian women sailor has ever secured.