Tulsi Ram Aggarwal hails India's seven medals at World Skate Games 2026

RSFI president Tulsi Ram Aggarwal hails India's stellar show at World Skate Games 2026

New Delhi, Oct 22

Speaking at the celebration ceremony after welcoming the athletes, Tulsi Ram heaped praise on the skaters' performance, with the likes of Anandkumar Velkumar and Anirudhan Vinod, among others, winning medals.

"This time, we have won seven medals at the World Skate Games in Paraguay. Two gold medals, three silver and two bronze medals. Paraguay is a far and hard place to be at. It is hard to take the skaters there, but we never hesitated and took the team to the tournament," Tusli Ram said.

"This tournament began on October 2. Nearly 10,000 athletes from 90 countries participated in it. Italy, Colombia, Chinese Taipei, Spain, France, United States, Iran, Chile, Germany, Venezuela, Portugal, Czechoslovakia, South Korea, Guatemala, Paraguay, and so on were the teams that participated in the event.

"Our children have gained a lot of experience and exposure from there by meeting different people," he added.

The RSFI president also stated that Colombia are a pretty strong team in skating and that the sport is just like a religion there, just like cricket is in India. "Just as cricket is considered almost like a religion in our country, skating holds that same status in Colombia, which is why Colombia is unbeatable in speed skating.

"However, it is a matter of great pride that one of our skaters, Anirudhan Vinod from Kerala, won a gold medal in the Junior Men's Road 1-Lap. At the same time, from a small union territory or region called Puducherry, a skater named Lohnath Arun Prasath won a silver medal. In the very same competition, two of our competitors achieved podium finishes with gold and silver.

"Moreover, the time difference between our gold medalist and silver medalist was a mere 0.24 seconds (240 milliseconds); otherwise, both would have crossed the finish line together-that is how tough the competition was! Anandkumar, whom I was mentioning a little earlier, won gold in the 42-kilometre race this time, and he also won a silver medal in the 1,000-meter track race," he added.

— IANS