They brushed poverty to make waves!

Sailors L. Jhansipriya have it made it to the Indian team for the World Championship to be held in Lake  Riva Del Garda, Italy. While Jhanipriya's mother is a housekeeper in a private hospital, Vaishnavi's mother works as a house help.

This is the first time that the two girls from the Telangana State have been selected for a World championship in the sub-juniors (U-16) category.

“We are both looking to move up the ladder to the Olympic and Asian Games Class in the Laser class and participate in the forthcoming Asian Trials to be held in Hyderabad in August given that this is our last year in the under 16 category”, said a confident and jubilant Vaishnavi, who is eagerly looking to migrating to the Lasers and the 29er under the watchful eyes of her coach.

"Garda is a lake and is known for heavy weather and hopefully our experience with Hussain Sagar monsoons will help a great deal", Jhansi added confidently.

The duo and their pacing teammates are moving into a bubble to ensure they are at the top of their fitness and to ensure intensive practice.

“The World championship (under-16) will see 264 sailors from more than 60 countries making it to the most competitive regatta for youth on the planet,” says coach Suheim Sheikh, also president of Yacht Club of Hyderabad.

“Riva Del Garda is one of the largest lakes in Europe in the picturesque northern part of Italy,  not far from Verona and provides challenging sailing conditions,” he says.

“Garda is host to all the biggest sailing championships in the world and despite being a lake simulates huge waves and is backed by sky high cliffs . The kids await their time on the water at what can be considered the Mecca of Sailing Championships,” Suheim says.

"Obviously, given the second wave of the pandemic and quarantine issues, there are many challenges both for the sailors traveling and the organisers to hold the championship in Italy,” he said to a query.

For the record, Jhansipriya will be competing in her fourth International after the 2019 Oman Asian meet, the Atlantic Week events at Portugal and Spain while Vaishnavi is India No. 2 and will be carrying the tricolour to Italy for the Worlds.

“These two, students of Udbhav School at Rasoolpura here, were into sailing since 2018 and rapidly made it to the top of the Indian fleet,” says Suheim.

For his part, Lt. Gen. (Retd) K.S. Rao, President of Telangana Sailing Association, is elated at the “outstanding achievement of the two young sailors”. “We shall leave no stone unturned in their participation in the Worlds,” he said.

“Both girls are training hard and I do hope that Covid related visa issues and quarantine issues do not spoil the party. Fingers crossed,“ said Suheim, an alumni of IIT Madras, who runs the YCH Foundation, a charitable sports organisation at Hussain Sagar Lake here with the tagline ‘Dignity Through Sports’.

He works only with marginalised children and moulds them into world class sailors. ‘It's been a long journey to get to this stage and were it not for immense support from the Telangana State Government's various departments this journey would never have reached this level. Institutions like the Metropolitan Commissioner HMDA, BPPA
and the  Sports Authority have lent their support when most needed," he said.

The duo and their pacing teammates are moving into a bubble to ensure they are at the top of their fitness and to ensure intense practice.