Chennai: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, says a popular proverbial phrase.
Ten-year-old Anil and Vinod Kumar, both residents of Surabi Trust for orphaned and destitute children, at Anna Nagar in the city, know this well and have turned the tough trials they faced in this young age into triumphs.
Taking the challenges of a parentless childhood and a very short training period in their stride, these two youngsters from the have both struck gold in their respective categories at the 15th National ITF Taekwondo Championship in Goa.
They will now represent India in the Asian Taekwondo Championship in Delhi in May 2019.
But, if we were to rewind time to just two weeks back, even their participation in the tournament was a big question, owing to lack of funds.
‘News Today‘ published a story about their talent and plight in the 20 August issue of the paper. This mobilised gracious readers to contribute their mite for the tournament and travel expenses of the two boys.
Within a few days, the trust’s founder and managing trustee D Radhakrishnamurthy made sure the youngsters reached Goa for the National Championship.
There was no looking back for Anil and Vinod after that. Fight after fight, they kept winning and progressing to the subsequent rounds, surprising even their coach Kebiraj, who is the Tamilnadu Taekwondo ITF Association president.
He was there in Goa with his own two children who also participated and took home medals.
Talking about Anil and Vinod in the competition, Kebiraj said,”It was their pain that made them train hard. The hunger to succeed made them win. They trained only for four months. We were hoping for the best, but certainly did not expect both of them to win gold. Most of the fights they won were through knockouts.”
Radhakrishnan says that it was Kebiraj who first spotted the talent of Anil and Vinod and began training them at the Government Middle School in Villivakkam.
“Kebiraj told us that both of them have the potential to make it big and took them for the nationals,”said Radhakrishnan.
“I selected only two people from their school and they were Anil and Vinod. But, I did not know they were both from a home when I selected them for the nationals,” says Kebiraj.
Anil and Vinod have one more trainer, Muralidharan, who both Kebiraj and Radhakrishnan say was instrumental for the boys’ success.
Muralidharan has been training the boys along with other children in Taekwondo at Surabhi Trust. He is a second dan black belt and 35 years experience in Taekwondo.
Muralidharan was engaged by Radhakrishnan to teach the children Taekwondo as part of their extracurricular activities at Surabi Trust.
Both the Taekwondo coaches, Muralidharan and Kebiraj, stress that it was only Anil and Vinod’s hard work that made them win gold.
Anil and Vinod practised under Kebiraj in their school for 2-3 days in a week and on Saturdays. Apart from this, they also had a regular training schedule early morning from 5.30 am to 6.30 am four days a week.
Kebiraj said,”Their movements were very good during training. Their only aim during sessions would be to practice. For other kids, we have to keep telling them to be silent and concentrate. But they needed no goading.”
Muralidharan also echoes Kebiraj’s views and said,”They were hard workers. They showed intent.”
But if you ask Anil and Vinod about their success story, shy smiles are all that you can get from them. After a few minutes of coaxing, they finally say that they really enjoyed travelling to Goa and winning. They quickly add that they will do even better next time.
But what is better than gold medal in a national championship? Anil and Vinod are clear what they want next.
They have their eyes set on fold in the Taekwondo Asian Championships in which at least 10 nations will be participating.