City skater to be seen in action during Asian Games

Anil Datt

Ludhiana, August 12

Harshveer Singh Sekhon of Ludhiana will be seen in action during the 18th edition of the Asian Games slated to be held from August 18 to September 2 at Jakarta Palembang, Indonesia.

The roller skating sport has been included for the first time in the Asian Games.

Harshveer, along with three other skaters Amitesh Mishra, Aarathy Kasturi Raj and Varsha Sriramakrishna, will be competing in roller skating during these games. They will take part in the marathon 20-km road race event.

Currently, the quartet has been attending the preparatory camp being held in Pune. They will join the Indian contingent at Jakarta on August 26 since the roller skating competitions are scheduled to begin on August 28.

Prior to this, Harshveer Singh underwent coaching camp from July 9 to 30 at Belgium to prepare for the games in Indonesia.

Harshveer took part in the World Roller Skating Championship-2018 held from July 1 to 8 in the Netherlands, wherein he competed in the grueling 15,000-metre elimination track race event, in which participants from 65 nations took part and Harshveer secured the 19th position.

Harshveer, a student of B Tech Vth semester (3rd year) at Guru Nanak Engineering College, Ludhiana, started getting coaching about a decade ago under the guidance of senior skating coach JS Dhaliwal at the Leisure Valley Skating Rink, Sarabha Nagar.

He has a number of medals under his belt, which he secured in the state, national besides the All-India Inter-Varsity Skating Championship as well as Asian Skating Championship held in China.

He bagged four medals, including two gold medals, in the Open National Roller Skating Championship held in Chennai, where he notched up top honours in the 10-km point-to-point rink race and 21-km marathon road race events.

He also won two bronze medals in this championship; 15-km elimination track race and 20-km elimination road race events on the basis of which Harshveer was selected for the coaching camp held in Gurugram for the preparations of World Championship.

Besides, Harshveer won three medals in the All-India Inter-University Skating Championship held at PAU, Ludhiana. He clinched a gold in the 10-km point-to-point road race; silver in the 15-km elimination track race and bronze in the 30-km point-to-point track race.

Harshveer also won a silver medal in the elimination track race in the Asian Skating Championship held in China last year.

Harshveer has also been selected for the upcoming Asian Skating Championship scheduled to be held in South Korea from September 4 to 14 and the World Universities Roller Skating Championship slated for October 10 to 15 in Taiwan.

“Harshveer Singh is in fine nick and I am confident that he will win a medal for the country in the Asian Games in Indonesia,” exuded confidence his coach, Dhaliwal.