The remarkable success story of Hyderabadis in beach volleyball continues! While the city has only one lake, Hussainsagar, to boast about, over the years it has been the spikers from the city who have been dominating the senior beach volleyball nationals. And this time around, it was the combine effort of Sara Ravinder Reddy and P. Krishna Chaitanya who ensured the rich legacy continues, by winning the title in Kozhikode on Saturday.
For the duo, who started playing together since February last year when it clinched the silver in the last National Games, Ravinder and Chaitanya are quite elated with their latest feat. Now, the focus shifts to the Olympics qualification. With Chaitanya already taking part in the first-leg of the trials held in India and finishing third, he, along with Ravinder, will now go to Thailand for the next leg of qualification for the 2016 Rio Games.
“It has been a wonderful experience and a great feeling to be the national champions. The fact that we could beat the heat and the tough opposition to win the quarters, semis and the final – all scheduled on the final day – in one day is proof of our grit, determination and skill,” remarked 35-year-old Ravinder, a postal assistant in the Postal Department.
Interestingly, Chaitanya is still searching for a job and is optimistic of getting one in a public sector undertaking.
These spikers with the indefatigable spirit to take on the best despite adversity – training at the Musheerabad playground on a makeshift sand court daily. Then, before the Calicut nationals, Ravinder and Chaitanya trained at Film Nagar Club for a couple of days to fine-tune their skills. “We need sponsorship and more and more tournaments to make it more popular,” insist both the champion spikers. “Since we have quite a few Asian-level events, we hope some corporate groups will help us,” say the newly-crowned National champions.
23-year-old Chaitanya reminds that though the Volleyball Federation of India is doing its bit, the sport and the players need greater support to dream big.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by V.V.Subrahmanyam / Hyderabad – March 07th, 2016