Tamil Nadu's Anandkumar crowned World Champion, bags gold in 1000m Inline speed skating
The win came just a day after the Hangzhou Asian Games bronze medallist had created history by becoming India’s first-ever senior medallist at the Championships, bagging bronze in the 500m+D sprint race on Sunday
Anandkumar Velkumar poses with his medal
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s Anandkumar Velkumar has once again put the country and the state on the roller skating map by scripting history with a gold medal in the 1000m sprint Inline Speed Skating discipline at the ongoing Speed Skating World Championships in China on Monday.
The win came just a day after the Hangzhou Asian Games bronze medallist had created history by becoming India’s first-ever senior medallist at the Championships, bagging bronze in the 500m+D sprint race on Sunday. Few would have expected that within 24 hours, the skater would double his performance and clinch the top prize.
Speaking to DT Next, his father Velkumar expressed his joy, recalling how Anandkumar has come a long way from skating on a badminton court in KK Nagar to being crowned world champion.
“He has been skating for over 15 years now. He first started near our house with a toy skate and gradually practised more seriously. Until the age of 10, he trained with quad skates and even then used to win medals at the state and national levels,” said Velkumar.
Anandkumar switched to Inline Speed Skating after turning 12 and made his big-stage breakthrough in 2021, when he won silver at the Junior World Championships.
“Over the years, he has been training at the Sathya Speed Skating Academy (SSSA) and is also supported by the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT),” his father added.
In 2023, Anandkumar was selected to represent India at the World Games, where he made the opportunity count by clinching bronze in the 1000m Inline Speed Skating sprint with a timing of 1:22.482s. That medal was India’s first-ever in speed skating at the global competition.
