Bhubaneswar:Roller skating which was once considered to be a recreational activity restricted to Tier-1 cities of India has started gaining in popularity in Bhubaneswar, thanks to the Odisha Skating Academy. Now more and more kids are flocking to the Kalinga Stadium training facility with those small wheels tied to their feet as they try and do the right balancing act.
The popular street festival Raahgiri, a programme to promote non-motorised transport, which was later renamed as Patha Utsav, prompted the entrance of roller skating in the city. Once in a while one can certainly see a youngster floating and weaving his way across the urban hindrances with fluid, languid movements.
Seeing the utility that lay in roller skating, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) in association with the state Sports and Youth Services department decided to do something about the sport and up came the skating rink. After it a few more rinks have come up at Madhusudan Park in Pokhariput and Budha Jayanti Park in Niladri Vihar.
“Most of the youth I interacted with, before starting my first camp in the city at Kalinga Stadium, had apprehensions about skating,” said Partha Sarathi Jena, founder of the Odisha Roller Skating Academy. “But once those were dispensed with, the popularity of the sport started growing.”
Jena, with some of his relatives and friends, started training kids at Biju Patnaik Airport colony. “The best paved roads near the airport provided a smooth surface. Later, many more joined, it was sheer excitement,” a gleeful Jena added.
His dedicated efforts in promoting roller skating in Odisha for the last seven years, prompted the members of the state Roller Skating Association to induct him. Last year he was appointed as the secretary of the association.
Jena who himself was a state champion has also participated at the national level. “We have produced 30-plus skaters who have played at the national level. In 2016, Odisha skaters won nine medals in CBSE Zonal Skating Competition, their maiden success and followed up with seven in 2017,” he mentioned. In the KV meet in 2014 and 2015, under the tutelage of Jena, Odisha bagged a gold and bronze medal respectively.
Highlighting another achievement of the state in the sport, Jena said, “May 30, this year a 17-member team from the state succeeded in making Guinness World Record at Belgaon, Karnataka by skating uninterrupted for 24 hours.”
It should be stated here that Jena’s academy provides training and skating equipment for free to budding learners as well as to those who do not come from very affluent families. “I think I am doing my part for the sport and in the future too I hope that this skating revolution would spread across the state,” he added. “After all its pollution free,” he signed off.
NIDHI SINHA, OP
