19th Asian Games Hangzhou: Embryologist combines with teens to win bronze in speed skating

Rohit Mahajan in Hangzhou

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When the time was right, Dr Aarthy delivered — and a bronze it was.

The 29-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 the company of two teenagers — 17-year-old Heeral Sadhu and 15-year-old Karthika Jagadeeswaran. 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.

Aarthy, a Chennai-based infertility specialist who is married to cricketer Sandeep Warrier, has seamlessly blended her medicine career with her passion for skating. She was in her early teens when she embarked upon her skating career — she then enrolled into a medical college, completed her MBBS and became an embryologist. The passion for skating never left her.

Arathy, who works at her mother’s hospital in Chennai, did give a slight pause to medicine because of 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 thought of being a grizzly veteran — at just 29! — to fresh-faced teenagers doesn’t bother her, too.

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 — it, she’s confident, 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.

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. “This is a really good opportunity for others to get into the sport. It’s an opportunity for everyone.”

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INDIANS IN ACTION

Archery

(6am onwards)

Compound: Women’s individual quarterfinals: Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Gopichand Swami; Men’s individual quarterfinals: Abhishek Verma, Ojas Pravin Deotale; Recurve: Men’s individual quarterfinals: Atanu Das, Dhiraj Bommadevara

Athletics

(6:30am onwards)

Men’s decathlon: Tejaswin Shankar; Women’s 800m heats: Chanda, Harmilan Bains; Women’s high jump final: Rubina Yadav, Pooja; Men’s triple jump final: Abdulla Aboobacker, Praveen Chithravel; Women’s 400m hurdles final: Vithya Ramraj; Men’s 400m hurdles final: Yashas Palaksha, Santhosh Kumar Tamilarasan; Women’s 5,000m final: Parul Chaudhary, Ankita; Women’s javelin throw final: Annu Rani; Men’s 800m final: Krishan Kumar, Mohammed Afsal; Men’s 4x400m relay heats

Badminton

(7:30am onwards)

Men’s singles Rd of 32: HS Prannoy, Kidambi Srikanth; Women’s singles Rd of 32: PV Sindhu, Ashmita Chaliha; Women’s doubles Rd of 32: Tresa Jolly & Gayatri Gopichand, Tanisha Crasto & Ashwini Ponappa

Boxing

Women’s 54kg semifinals: Preeti 11:30am; Women’s 75kg semifinals: Lovlina Borgohain 12pm; Men’s 57kg quarterfinals: Sachin 5:15pm; Men’s +92kg semifinals: Narender 6:30pm

Chess

(12:30pm onwards)

Round 5 of team events

Cricket

Men’s quarterfinals:

India vs Nepal 6:30am

Hockey

Women’s Pool A:

India vs Hong Kong 7:45am

Kabaddi

Men’s Group A: India vs Bangladesh 6am; Women’s

Group A: India vs South Korea 1:30pm

Squash

(8:30am onwards)

Women’s singles quarterfinals: Tanvi Khanna; Men’s singles quarterfinals: Sourav Ghosal; Doubles pool matches