Brahmesh is the ruler of the rink

It was just two years ago that Brahmesh Patel had first expressed a desire to roller skate. Today, the 11-year-old city boy is already a gold medalist at the 51st National Roller Skating Championship (Artistic Skating Category) in Mumbai. A student of Delhi Public School in Nacharam, Brahmesh was juggling tennis and his favourite pass time of solving Rubik cubes, when he decided to join the Yama Skating Academy. Within a year, he participated and won a bronze medal at a district-level competition. “Soon after that, I won silver and gold medals at another state-level competition,” he says.

The young boy is eager to win more accolades and sticks to a fixed schedule of waking up at 4 am and going to Indira Park with his mother Maya Patel, every day before school. After he returns, he spends an hour at the Secunderabad-based skating academy. “My grandparents say I shouldn’t push myself too hard as I’m just a kid, but I’m more than happy to spend my time skating,” Brahmesh says.

He had long been looking forward to the National Roller Skating Championship, for which he made quite a few sacrifices. “A month before the championship, his school had organised a trip to Rajasthan but he decided to stay back and practice,” says his proud father, Ramesh Patel.

Already a winner at roller skating, Brahmesh decided to expand his horizons by participating in the National Ice Skating Championships in Shimla. Even though he had no prior experience in the sport, he placed an impressive 4th. “I practiced for just four days before the event,” says the Class VI student.

While he has accomplished quite a bit in the sport over the past two years, he believes there’s more in store. “Now that I have won at the nationals, my goal is to win a gold medal at the All- Asian Championship,” he says.