Page 34 - Education World November 2022

Young Achievers

tive Nizamabad district, — comprising engineering under-
Nikhat took to this pugilis- grads Mohan, Anjana Prasad, Manav
tic sport like a duck to wa- R. Samant, Kishore K, Swamina-
ter. Within six months, she than C, Pratigya S, Shakthieswaran
won her first gold medal at M, Anandh B, Vikash S, Naveen V,
the National Rural Games Gerontius Leo L, Vekash S, Barathraj
in Karimnagar, Telangana. M and Sanaa Mohammad — was
Shortly thereafter, she mentored by KCT Garage, a stu-
was selected by the Sports dent research and innovation hub
Authority of India for established to prepare teams for
training under I.V. Rao, a national and international-level
Dronacharya awardee, at sports competitions. Technically and
its facility in Visakhapat- financially supported by the Pune-
nam. In 2010, she won a based Legrand India Pvt. Ltd, a com-
gold medal at the Erode pany that manufactures electrical
National Games and a and digital building infrastructure,
year later, won the World and Quench Chargers (Ador Diga-
NIKHAT ZAREEN Junior and Youth Championship in tron Pvt. Ltd), an electric charging
Antalya, Turkey.
solutions company and several other
“Women in boxing is a new firms, the team submitted its pro-
ndia’s women’s boxing star phenomenon globally, but it is totype to MEBC in December 2021,
Nikhat Zareen (26) who won a becoming increasingly popular as and after it was approved, designed
Igold medal in the lightweight cat- women are asserting their equality and fabricated their speed boat using
egory at the Commonwealth Games with men worldover. Sania Mirza, a zero-emission energy propulsion
which concluded in Birmingham on India’s women tennis star, who has engine.
August 8, and was crowned world won several Grand Slam doubles and “We decided to use aluminium
champ at the International Box- mixed doubles championships is also to build the cockpit of our boat
ing Association (IBA) Women’s from Hyderabad. I hope our example christened ali. The boat is pro-
Y
World Boxing Championships held will encourage Muslim girls in India pelled by a Torqeedo electric motor
in Istanbul three months earlier, to participate and shine in sports and of the Netherlands-based Rim Drive
is not resting on her laurels. She is games,” says Nikhat. Technology powered by a 200AH
training six hours daily in national Somasekar Mulugu (Hyderabad) lithium iron phosphate battery and
boxing camps in Delhi, and at the flexible solar panels as a secondary
world-class Suchitra Academy, Hy- source. ali was successfully tested
Y
derabad to retain her world cham- in Chennai port prior to the competi-
pion title at the IBA Championship SPEEDBOAT DESIGN TEAM tion,” says Sanaa, spokesperson of
scheduled to be held next March. Team Sea Shakti.
junior national footballer and state- A Team Sea Sakthi are enriched by the
Born into a sports loving fam-
14-member team of Kumara-
Now back in KCT, members of
ily — father Jameel Ahmed was a
guru College of Technology,
Coimbatore (KCT, estb.1984)
level athlete, and younger sister bagged the communication prize experience. “Designing, fabricating
and racing our boat against college
Afran (17) is a promising badmin- (€2,000) in the Monaco Energy Boat teams from 21 countries was an in-
ton player — Nikhat, a humanities Challenge (MEBC) international valuable learning and benchmarking
graduate of AV College, Hyderabad, competition, in which technical uni- experience. It provided validation
attributes her success entirely to versities from 21 countries partici- that our engineering programmes
extraordinary family support. “I pated. This year’s MEBC version 9.0 are as good as any in the world,” says
owe a lot to my father who inducted held in Monaco on July 6-9 required Sanaa.
me into athletics and fitness train- participating teams to build sustain-
ing. Moreover, my coaches — Mohd. able boats within Runa Mukherjee Parikh (Ahmedabad)
Shamshamuddin, I.V. Rao and specific design
Emani Chiranjeevi — motivated me parameters and
at various stages of my career,” she race them against
recalls. each other. Among
“I am determined to retain my 16 teams in the en-
IBA title early next year. That will ergy class category,
be the first step towards winning KCT’s Team Sea
the gold at the 2024 Paris Olym- Sakthi was ranked
pics,” adds Nikhat with steely #6 based on their
determination. performance in the
Introduced to the sport at age 13 qualifiers, endur-
(2009) at a beginners’ camp on the ance and slalom
invitation of veteran boxing coach races.
Mohd. Shamshamuddin in her na- Team Sea Sakthi

34 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2022