Even before showing her prowess at the international rollball tournament, city-based Mahimasree CS impressed the jury in the state. She was the only player from Tamil Nadu to be selected to play for the Indian team in the 3rd Asian Rollball Championship held recently at Belgaum. She was the only player from South India and youngest player in the team that won gold at the event. A class 9 student of Suguna PIPs School, Mahimasree was a skater initially.
When she was practising to skate, she was introduced to rollball by the physical director of her school, Rajasekar V, who also serves as the secretary of the Coimbatore District Roll Ball Association. “I started skating when I was in class 5. Rajasekar was my coach. Seeing my skating skills, he introduced me to rollball and trained me,” she says. Mahima was selected at district-level in rollball in 2016. “After the selection, I was appointed as the captain of the team,” she says.
In 2017, the 14-year-old participated in the National Rollball Championship in Goa, SGFI Rollball Championship in Chhattisgarh, and in 2018 she took part in Invitational Rollball Championship in Sri Lanka. Her team won bronze at the national meet, silver at the invitational championship and two gold and one bronze at SGFI championship.
“The first national- level match I took part in was in Udaipur in 2016 where my team secured fourth place,” says Mahima, who is a goalkeeper and defensive player in the sport. Talking about the recentlyheld Asian Rollball Championship, she says that it is her first venture into the international- level. “Players from 17 countries took part in the tournament. In the finals, I played offence and defence against Bangladesh and won gold with a score of 4-3.
It was difficult to win in the finals because the score was 3-0 in favour of Bangladesh. When we almost lost the hope of winning, the coach motivated us to play for the country and in the last 30 seconds, we placed the goal,” she shares. Mahima plays tennis, is a swimmer and an athlete. “Playing as a team taught me team spirit. I feel proud to have represented India,” she says, adding, “I aspire to represent India in the Olympics, and make the country proud,” M a h i m a says.