CHENNAI: Until he was 20, he had not seen the ocean. He did not know how to swim until he joined the Army in 2013. Eabad Ali is quite an oddity. Growing up in a small village Ruhiyawan, on the banks of Ghaghara river, 25 km away from Ayodhya, all he knew about were the local boats. Sailing was as alien a word as the sport. Sometimes, like Eabad believes, you don’t know what the world throws up at you. All he knew was that he wanted to be enlisted in the Army as his father wished. Not windsurfing in a beautiful destination in China, lest the Asian Games.
On Tuesday, in the deep blue waters on the confluence of Qiantang river estuary and East China sea, Eabad was all focused because of the job in hand — winning a medal. “I had to be on the podium. The coaches and my department Army and the Sports Authority of India have put so much faith in me that they invested in a new boat and training, that I told myself ‘today I have to finish on the podium’,” Eabad told this daily from Ningbo, the venue of the sailing event. He finished third for a bronze behind gold medallist Won-woo Cho of South Korea and Natthaphong Phonoppharat of Thailand in RS:X windsurfer.
The reason for his desperation was the new boat his team procured from Singapore. His coach Prakash Alexander flew to Singapore to look for the rare boat and had to fly it along with other equipment to Ningbo for the event. “They invested in my boat and I had to repay them with a podium finish,” he said. “They also gave exposure in Thailand and South Korea.”
Yachting Association of India joint secretary Jitender Dixit said since the boat is going to be discontinued, availability has shrunk.“Thanks to funding from SAI and other stakeholders, we flew the coach to Singapore and airlifted the equipment to China,” he said.
The 15-year-old RS:X windsurfer will be replaced by a windfoil class at the Paris Olympics.
On his windsurfer, the man from Uttar Pradesh who was once scared of water now mastered the sea for three days across 14 races to finish third. Then he recollected how he first saw the sea. “It was during a competition and trials when we went to Mumbai in 2016 that for the first time I saw the sea,” said Eabad, who learnt to sail only when he joined the Army in 2013 (3EME Centre Bhopal). “Once in the Army I had to learn everything and swimming was one of them,” he laughed.
Eabad’s life took a remarkable turn in around 2014-15. He fondly remembers his officer Lt Col Ashutosh Tripathi who saw his physique and advised him to take up sport. “I was good at running and had good stamina and power. Perhaps seeing that, he took me to the big lake in Bhopal where there is a small sailing centre for us,” he said. Soon, he started doing well. “I liked it and soon I was selected for the Army Yachting Node in Mumbai,” he said. That was in 2017. Eabad said that its commanding officer NS Johal and his coach Alexander helped him grow as a sailor.
Though there has been support from Army and SAI, Eabad felt the support from his brother was immense. “My father always wanted me to be in the Army and that is why I joined. Even my brother is in the Army,” said Eabad, who is a hawaldar. “He takes care of the family and that has helped me spend money on the sport. We get a lot of support from the Army and SAI but as sportspersons there are things that we need to take care of.” Eabad’s father runs a small dairy farm and he has five sisters and a brother. With bronze by his side, he would like to relax before hitting the waters once again, and perhaps make waves once again. This time at the Olympics.