Vidushi Agarwal, a seven-year-old skater from Ultadanga, has bagged three medals at the National Inter-District Roller Skating Championship in Mohali earlier this month. And she is the only player from Bengal to make it to the podium in the under-14 category.
Vidushi’s favourite race was the 200m in which she bagged bronze in the seven-to-nine year group. Her toughest race was the 500m, where she still bagged a bronze. She won a silver in the 1,000m lap. “Competition was tough with almost 80 participants in every race but I was confident,” says the Class III student who trains under coach Victor Balmiki at
Bidhan Sishu Udyan.
Vidushi began training at the age of four, watching elder sister Kashish, who herself has won state-level laurels.
Since then Vidushi has won at the state level as well as in the National Roller Skating Championship in 2021. Even then she was the only medallist from Bengal.“Bengal does not have adequate skating infrastructure,” says Vidushi’s father Krishna. “We don’t even have a 200m synthetic rink for students’ practice. This is a basic requirement many other states have and so naturally their contenders have an edge over ours. We just have a 150m concrete rink at Bidhan Sishu Udyan.”
To compensate, he takes the girl to skate in New Town at 4.30am when the roads are free. In the evenings its time with her coach. “I lost the gold by microseconds this time and I’m focused now on the next national tournament in Ranchi in June,” says the girl whose summer holidays are packed to the brim.
“Besides skating I also learn Bharatnatyam, ballet, swimming and gymnastics. And I’m a good student and have won a privilege card for academics from school,” smiles the girl who wants to become a professional skater and gymnast.