Representing the State in archery the youngest archer is Nandi Devi Sharma at 17. Based in Ponda, she comes from a sports background. Her mother is an archery coach and her father is a taekwondo coach in taekwondo. Nandi said she started practising at the age of 5. She has represented Goa in the mini nationals and won a bronze. In archery there are three types of bow, Indian, Recurve and Compound. Nandi will be participating in the Recurve section. She said she appreciated the South Korean archer An San from South Korea who did very well in the Tokyo Olympics. She expressed her motivation to represent the country in the Asian games and according to her she is progressing quite well. Speaking about the National Games, she said “I may not win a medal this time but I can say this with confidence that I am very confident of my progress in the sport.” She has been training hard in Ponda and since she is in higher college she would train 3 hours a day.
The fortunes of Goa in handball are in this 18 year old’s hands. Rohit Vadlar lives in Raia and has been playing handball for a year. It was recommended to him by a friend. He started off by playing in an inter-collegiate match. He played and it seemed to give him a kick. He loved playing as a goalkeeper. Asked how he prepared for his sport, he said it involved a lot of stretching. He said, “If I run for five minutes, I stretch for 30 minutes”. When asked about Goa’s chances in the Nationals he said, “I can guarantee, if my team needs me, I will perform well.”
The youngest male archer in the male category is Shubham Bhadauria. Also an expert in recurve, he started off in the Indian round but then shifted because he found there was not much international competition in that style. At 26, he has represented the state in 7 nationals and his best rank was when came in the top 50 in the Cuttack in 2019. He said he was confident of doing well in the National Games in Goa because he has been training very hard to stand the chance of a medal in his home state.
The martial art of Taekwondo has helped the State win medals in the past. Rushad Naik from Margao has been a practitioner of this sport from the age of 2. He has been representing Goa since 2009. At the age of 9 and a half he won 2 gold and a bronze in the u-7 category when he was under ten. He has been helped by the fact his mother is a coach in the sport and is the only 8 dan Grandmaster in the country. He practises Poomsae which his mother is an expert in. Practise has been intense and was usually 3 times a day but from last week it has been reduced to 2 sessions but the hours of practise has increased. He said he was aiming for a gold medal.
He is one of the promising players in Football that has made it into the squad. Bryson Pereira who is 18 is a midfielder from Nuvem. He has been playing football for fifteen years. The passion for the game in him can be gauged by the fact he started playing the game at the age of 3. A boarder at St Rita Boarding School, he would practise every day. Bryson said he first learned the basics of the game from his elder brother and he then went into grassroots football to learn and enhance his game. He was picked up by Reliance during their grassroots trials and is now with FC Goa. When asked about Goa’s chances in the National Games, he said, “I am very confident, we will do very well.” When asked who his favourite player in the game was he said Christiano Ronaldo because he was a hardworking player and that was an aspect which he respected a lot. He said he practised a maximum of an hour each session which would usually be two sessions in a day.
Squash is considered a sport which has a very intense effect on the heart and athletes have to be prepared to go through brutal training sessions to stay fit. One young girl who is currently ranked no 2 in Asia in the u-14 and ranked no-2 in the u-13 nationally is the young Nimrit Pascricha. Based in Vasco, the young girl is very excited to be part of the National Games. It is the first one she was selected for, said her mother. When asked how she got first excited by the sport, she said, “ I had gone to the club and looked at the games like Badminton, Table tennis and then I saw squash and was fascinated by it, the ball being hit against the wall and which comes back to you. It caught my eye and I decided to go for it”. She really hopes Goa wins a medal. She said, “I hope to do well and play well and if I do that I can win my matches. I will go for it and make Goa proud”. She started playing squash at 7, with a mother who played table tennis and father a fitness enthusiast. She felt very proud when she was selected after an arduous process for the Asian Junior Individual Championship. Nimrit said she got Goosebumps when she learnt she would be representing the country. She said she intended to practise hard and play with the seniors. She hopes to also be part of the Olympics in 2028 when Squash will be part of the roster. But till then the Nationals will be the focus of all her attention.
Another young member of the fencing squad is Hitarth Mulewa. From Margoa but now based in Panjim this 16 year old first watched and played games online and watched fencing bouts on Youtube. He was then introduced to the sport by Deepak Singh Rajput who came to his school Mushtifund high school and he was hooked. He has already played in 4 nationals and this will be his fifth attempt. He is a practitioner of the art of the foil where one scores only on the torso. He spends anywhere between 6 to 8 hours everyday practising. He has not won a medal yet but says he will try his very best to win a medal for the state at home.
The sport of swimming is always very popular at any multi event program and will hope the 12 year old Aarohi Borde catches fire and wins medals and glory for her and State. A competitor in the 200 meters butterfly and 400 metres freestyle, she has been swimming from the age of two and a half. Her interest in the sport was tickled by the fact she always loved swimming and she would go to the pool and pester the guards to train her after her sister would go swimming. Her first competition was at three and a half years of age. She has already represented Goa in three Junior Nationals. Her day is very structured. She reports for training in the morning at 5 o’clock at the pool. Training continues till she has to leave at 7 or 7.30 for school. Back home at 2 o’clock and complete all that needs to be done and then she leaves for training at 4 o’clock to 8 o clock. She said when she learned she was selected for the nationals she did not think too much of it. She said, “I thought it was just like the other championships. But when I began to see the posters and other material coming up, I began to get nervous. Her best result is coming 7th in the 100 meters butterfly. Her coach is Sujit from the Khelo India programme
A medal in the last Asian Fencing Tournament caught the fancy of the country. Yuvika Kohli is the youngest in the team at 14. Based in Caranzalem , she was introduced to the sport by her sister and she got interested. She trains in Durgawadi and has represented Goa twice in Kerala and in Pune which was the senior nationals. She came second in the selection trials for the Nationals. She said she would try her best to win a medal as she has not won a medal yet for Goa. Her determination can be gauged by the fact that she trains 8 hours a day. 4 hours in the morning and 4 in the evening. The morning is spent on exercise, footwork and targeting and the evening is dedicated to bouts. She is in the epee event where the entire body is the target. Her parents she said would come because her sister was also part of the squad. She said she was proud of the fact she was now given an opportunity to represent Goa and she would give her very best to make it count.
The game of table tennis is a brutal sport of incredible speed and spin. Goa has a young player who could go far. Aaron Farias from Taleigao is 15 years old and has been playing since 2016. He was a huge fan and a player of futsal but his involvement in that sport came to a standstill when his coach left for further studies. He took up table tennis one day and fell in love with it. The left handed player is a huge fan of the Chinese player Wang thu Qin. He started representing Goa in 2017. He was all of 10 years old then. When asked about the National games, he said it was the first Nationals in the State and he felt good because the team was very strong. He felt it was a very big opportunity to play and win medals for Goa. He said, “I am very confident and am looking forward to having fun. I intend to give it my best chance. My family will be watching”. He practises three hours in the morning and evening. He said he intended to play for the country
The most brutal of sports, Boxing has a 20 year old girl who is tough as nails. Suman Yadav from Margao is the only Goan boxer with five medals in the nationals. For one so young she has been part of ten nationals. Her first national was in 2016. She says her parents are proud of her and her father is her biggest motivator. She has been part of the boxing camp for three months. She said the Goa Boxing Association had started the camps even before getting permission from the government. She would earlier have three sessions in a day but now as competition approached it was reduced to two sessions of an hour each.
The mother of all sports is undoubtedly athletics. One of the state’s most promising athletes is undoubtedly the young Siddesh Morajkar. He will be participating in the 4 x 400 metres relay. The 17 and a half year old has been running for a year. The Mapusa local used to play football earlier. But his physical education sir at the DM’s Higher Secondary School in Asagoan forced him to join athletics. His talent can be gauged by the fact that earlier this month while representing Goa in the 34 the West Zone Championship held in Jodhpur, Rajasthan he won the gold in the 110 metres hurdles and a bronze in the 400 metres hurdles. He spends an hour or more in the morning and the evening practising. He said his parents were very proud of the medals he won and would call him up every day at the residential camp to ask him how he was doing. When asked what his aspirations were for the National Games, he said he was not sure but was confident of doing well. He ended by saying he was happy to represent Goa and to be part of the team.
