Siblings on a roll as healthy rivalry works wonders

Nothing can match sibling ‘rivalry’ — be it academics or sports. In a healthy competition to outdo each other, the duo of Anshika Rathee and Dhruv Rathee has ended up winning several medals, including the recent gold medals for the country at the 20th Asian Roller Skating Championships in South Korea.

While Anshika won the gold medal in the Senior Women’s Roller Hockey category, her younger brother Dhruv Rathee was on the same podium position in the boys’ Under-19 category — bringing pride to the city.

Anshika, who will turn 19 this month, recently brought cheer to her family by admission to the Computer Science branch at Punjab Engineering College (PEC). Her brother Dhruv (17) is a Class XII student at Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 19.

This is not the first time that the duo has bagged laurels for the nation, as they had also played in the 2024 World Roller Skating Championship in Italy.

“There was no plan of becoming a professional roller skater. During our childhood, we used to play football at an open ground in neighbourhood. With time playing there was restricted. Since my father used to make us go through a strict fitness routine, our neighbours asked us to accompany their child for skating. There’s no looking back since then. We started learning skating together and later shifted to roller hockey,” said Anshika, who has participated in nine national championships for Chandigarh. Her national achievements include two gold medals in senior category, two gold, one silver, one bronze medal in the junior category and two silver medals in sub-junior category.

“We usually compete between ourselves. No matter what happens on the field, at home we do talk a lot about skating and analyse who played or practiced better. Sometimes this leads to heated arguments, but our parents manage to make peace between us,” laughed Anshika, whose father and mother are government employees in Chandigarh.

Having a gold and a bronze in the junior category, besides a silver and a bronze in the sub-junior category in the kitty, from the nationals, Dhruv wishes to stay connected with the sport for long. “I am surely going to win more medals than my sister. The competition in South Korea was amazing. It was not an easy task to achieve the feat, but all thanks to our team that we clinched the top spot,” said Dhruv.

“My mother ensures we get a balanced diet and father takes care of the technical part, which includes choosing best kits, planning tours and competitions,” he added.

Both skaters credit coaches Sarabjit Singh, Harpreet Singh Grewal (Kirti), Harpreet Singh, Suman Sharma (Bhatti) and Rohit Randhawa. They train at KB DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 7, and the Sector 10 Skating Rink.

Other achievers honoured

Roller skaters who were recently awarded for their achievement in South Korea included Manika Mahajan, Yashika Sharma, Vinnati, Himanshi Kaushal, Anshika (women’s gold medal), Gurshaan Singh Aujla, Angadbir Singh, Jujhar Singh, Naman Gussain (men’s silver medal), Adhiraj Shaunak, Damanpreet Singh, Daksh, Mayank, Dhruv Rathee, Ritesh Kamboj, Saarthak, Ansh Sharma (boys’ U-19 gold medal), Angel Kaushik, Sonam Singh, Jasmine Saini (inline silver medal), Nanki (women’s participation), Jobanjeet Singh, Abhyuday Thakur, Paraspreet Singh, Sanidhya Tiwari (boys’ junior bronze medal) and Karanveer Singh Kang (men’s participation).