HYDERABAD : Visakhapatnamborn skater Arun Kumar Rayudu has the unique distinction of becoming the first Indian to win a gold at the Northeast intercollegiate figure skating championship in New York, representing Northeastern University.
The competition last month, saw 24 universities, including Ivy League schools like Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Columbia, Brown and Dartmouth College, MIT, Boston, New York, Unis of Massachusetts and Connecticut vie for honours.
The 24-year-old Telugu lad has now set his sights on winning the MIT championship in January and the Sacred Heart University championship in March next year.
The youngster is in Boston, USA for his master’s degree in Project Management at the Northeastern University. “It feels great to be the first Indian to win a gold in the tournament. My focus now is on the next two tournaments lined-up next year,” he told TOIfrom Boston on Saturday.
His exploits are not surprising, given his impressive record in India. He is a 16-time national champion in roller skating and six times in ice ska- ting. Apart from winning many medals, he was world No. 5 in the U-19 category in 2017 and Asia No. 2 in senior category.
Arun started skating as a three-year-old in Visakhapatnam to fight asthma and found the game to be his calling.
“My father (RV Rao) retired as the executive director of Vizag Steel Plant.
It has one of the biggest rinks in the country and I trained there. I got a lot of support from them,” reminisced Arun, who won 16 gold, 17 silver and 16 bronze at the national level and two silver and a bronze from international competitions.
Arun’s long-term goal is to represent India in the Winter Olympics and Winter Asian Games. “This university has the best skating facility — Mathew’s Arena, which is the oldest dating back to 1900s. I came here to pursue my professional career and passion in skating. We can’t focus on skating in India due to the financial crunch. I want to focus on both aspects of my career,” he signed off.