Roller skating enthusiasts in Kerala have reason to cheer as the state’s first synthetic banked roller skating rink is set to open in Palakkad. The 185-meter-long track has been set up for Rs. 70 lahks and is expected to host national and international events. The new roller skating rink is a long-awaited addition to the state’s sports infrastructure and is expected to provide a professional training ground for roller skaters in the state.
The track has been set up by four enthusiasts – S. Vinod, Anoop Dev, Manoj K. Das, and Yaswanth B. Das – who are passionate about roller skating and wanted to provide a platform for children in Kerala to hone their skills in the sport. The promoters of Yaswanth’s Academy of Roller Skating, Palakkad, observed that although children from Kerala excelled in almost all sporting events at the national level, they could not make a mark in roller skating due to the lack of facilities in the state.
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Parents from Kerala had to take their children to Coimbatore for training and practice, as there was no single rink in the state. Mr Vinod and Mr Dev used to take their children to Coimbatore at 4 a.m. every day and return by 8 a.m. after a couple of hours of training in roller skating on synthetic tracks there. “We would take them again to Coimbatore after school hours in the evening. ” Many people have been taking so much pain to train their children in professional tracks,” they said.
The new track at Yaswanth’s Academy of Roller Skating is a synthetic banked rink, essential for professional roller skating training. The track’s banked design allows skaters to take turns at high speeds without falling, making it a safe and ideal training ground for aspiring roller skaters. A child skates at an average speed of 50 kmph in this sport, and they can go up to 70 kmph, making a synthetic banked rink a must for professional training in roller skating.
The national record in the 100-meter event is 9.60 seconds, and the new track is expected to provide a platform for children to train and compete at national and international levels. The track will offer coaching to children by Sanoop Salim, currently the fastest skater in Kerala, and is expected to encourage more children to take up roller skating.
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The promoters of Yaswanth’s Academy of Roller Skating have invested in the new track as a long-term investment for the sport and hope that other parts of Kerala will take inspiration and build better tracks. “If it is confined to Palakkad alone, then it is bad for the sport,” said Mr Vinod.
The opening of Kerala’s first synthetic banked roller skating rink is a significant milestone for the sport in the state. It is expected to provide a professional training ground for roller skaters and encourage more children to take up the sport. The new track’s potential to host national and international events could also put Palakkad on the map as a major hub for roller skating in the country.
