CHENNAI: Eight-year-old C K Sai Naren’s composure rivals that of even those four times his age. The Class 4 student of Shri Krishnaswamy Matriculation Higher Secondary School juggles roller skating, keyboard classes, fitness training sessions, and the daily, grumble-inducing grind of schooling, with ease. “Except Sundays and Mondays, I practise for an hour or so after coming back from school,” he elaborates with an inherent earnestness. “I also attend fitness sessions at the YMCA, and learn to play the keyboard in between.”
Even Naren’s first tryst with rollerblades showcases the beyond-his-age maturity that the roller skater has imbibed at such a young age. “When we moved to KK Nagar in 2012, I took him to Shivan Park where he saw kids going around zig-zag on skates. That piqued his interest,” says Naren’s mother, Sowmya, a homemaker. As a result, she and her husband, Karthik — a cook by profession — decided to enroll their child with the Spunk Roller Skating Club in the area.
What happened next may have deterred many kids from lacing up their rollerblades again, but not Naren. “He joined the club and fell during one of the initial classes, picking up a deep gash on his head,” elaborates Sowmya. “Three stitches and three weeks later, he was up again, wanting to go back to the club. Fast forward to eight months, he won an inter-club competition.”
Staying in line with the usual ‘from scratch to the best of the batch’ narrative that quite often summarises the rise of successful sportspersons, Naren started filling up his silverware cabinet soon enough. After a double gold at the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Open Championship in 2014, he went on to become the first quad skater in the U-6 years category to represent the state at Open International Roller Skating Championship in the 2015 edition held in Bangkok, winning the championship trophy while doing so.
Young roller skaters have to contend with entry fees and the general obscurity associated with the sport. But, Sowmya ensures that her son is shielded from them. “Though Naren has so much on his plate, he thinks about roller skating all the time. He’s passionate about it. A sponsorship will go a long way for him, yes. But, I do everything that I can so that all he needs to do is skate like he does.”