Embryologist combines with teens to win bronze in speed skating
Hangzhou (China): Twenty-nine–year-old Aarthy Kasturi Raj, a practising doctor, probably the only one among the Indian athletes here, won the women’s 3,000m relay bronze in speed skating together with two teenagers — 17-year-old Heeral Sadhu and 15-year-old Karthika Jagadeeswaran, a special report by Rohit Mahajan in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says
The three timed 4 minutes 34.861 seconds to earn bronze behind the teams from Chinese Taipei (4m 19.447s) and South Korea (4m 21.146s).
Soon after that, the trio of Vikram Rajendra Ingale, Siddhant Rahul Kamble, and Anandkumar Velkumar won the men’s version of the 3,000m relay for India’s second speed skating bronze
A Chennai-based infertility specialist who is married to cricketer Sandeep Warrie, Aarthy, has seamlessly blended her medicine career with her passion for skating.
She started skating when she was in her early teens. She then joined a medical college, completed her MBBS and became an embryologist. But the passion for skating never left her.
Arathy took a break from her job at her mother’s hospital in Chennai to participate in The Asian Games.
“Yes, I took a break from the medical profession to prepare for this event,” said Arathy, who had competed in the 2018 Asian Games, too.
She says she’d go back to the medical profession for now, that she’s secured a medal, and because the next Asian Games are three years away.
At the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, she had finished seventh in the individual event; here, she improved two rungs and ended up fifth; finally, she landed a medal today in the team event.
A nasty fall during practice in May, which left her with 26 stitches on her forehead, wasn’t enough to scare her.
The Indian team is teeming with teenagers, and asked if she could be thinking of closing the sporting chapter of her life to concentrate fully on the medical profession, Arathy had an empathic answer. “No, I’m not going to stop,” she said. “My next target is the 2026 Asian Games.”
Aarthy said the bronze here would be priceless. She’s confident it would boost the sport in the country. “Winning bronze will definitely open up a lot of opportunities for us because we are not on the priority list in India. Sadly, this isn’t an Olympic sport,” she said.
17-year-old Sadhu isn’t deterred by this obstacle, too. “This is my first Asian Games,” said the teenager, who finished seventh in the women’s 1,000m Point-Elimination race,
“I’m just 17, and I’m really happy we got a team medal!” Karthika, still younger at 15, wants more people to take up skating. “It was my first experience at the Asian Games, and it was great! It is going to be the best experience for me,” she said..
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