A group of 21 students from a private karate coaching centre recently came back with a few medals after taking part in a national-level competition at Karaikal, Puducherry.
For the students and their instructor Noushad A, a faculty member of GR Public School and the founder of the sports school, the 13-medal haul was a sweet start. The reason - it has been hardly just a year since the New Indian Sports Academy has been formed.
Though Noushad had been training students in the martial art even before founding the sports school, this venture was something that happened recently.
And, within a year the students from the academy has managed to get selected in the Students Olympics National Games 2015-16. While the competition was the academy’s first national-level entry, the event attended by students from schools across the country, was being held for the second time. Says Noushad, who has been practising Karate for the past 27 years: “The academy has just received the licence to operate and currently the students are being accommodated in a building, with a single 50-metre hall, on the premises of GR Public School here. Right now, we only teach karate here, but plan to coach students on swimming, badminton, taekwondo, wushu, kungfu and much more.”
The students from the academy, 10 boys and 11 girls from class I to class X, won 6 silver and 6 bronze medals, with 1 gold medal for the sports academy for the best sports school. Students from St Helens Girls HS, Lourdepuram, Leo XIII HSS, Pulluvila, Government Boys High School, Balaramapuram and Jawahar Central School, Kanjiramkulam, represented the sports school in the event.
The academy currently has around 600 students from different schools across the city, including GR Public School, training karate under Noushad and his wife Shajina Noushad. While Noushad and Shajina are both certified karate instructors, both have earned the title of Shihan and Sensei respectively. The students of the sports academy are now geared up to participate in a national-level karate competition to be held in New Delhi.