CHENNAI:Chennaiites seem to embrace lesser known sports like no other. The newest name to emerge is Vacasya Narayan, who is making waves in roller skating. A gold at the nationals in December has now seen her win five straight yellow metals at the event. And all this without proper coaching that any aspiring athlete ought to be getting.
“My coach, Pavan Kumar, is from Vizag. He visits Chennai once a month and teaches us one aspect of skating. We then practise that for the rest of the month, after which he comes over again and we move on to some other topic,” she shares. Obviously, it is
not easy since he is not there to clear their doubts.
“But I am also lucky to have the assistant coach, Vinayakam, to help us with the drills. He makes sure we practise every day, without slacking. And we were able to bounce off ideas and doubts with him as well. Though he isn't there anymore, his presence surely made it easier,” she says.
The Virugambakkam resident wasn’t into sports till she was 8. “One day, I visited my aunt who lived opposite the Corporation ground skating rink in Shenoy Nagar, and seeing the skaters there piqued my interest. It was new to me and I decided to give it a shot. And soon, I fell in love with it.”
The 15-year-old’s father had an interesting take on how he named his daughter such. “After she was born, we consulted pundits, who gave us a few syllables to name our daughter with. I went through the usual lexicon of words, but none caught my eye as they were all common. Then I came across this name which is a combination of two words: Vac (word)
and Asya (truth), which means one who doesn’t go back on the word,” he explains adding
that the word appears in the Bhagavat Gita.
The Class 10 student of Padma Sheshadhri Balabavan Senior Secondary School, K K Nagar, wants a career in HR. “After board exams, I want to apply for the commerce stream. In college, I want to do BCom or Economics — a subject that basically helps me get into HR,” she says.