Young Bharat Pereirakamath Bags Three Silver Medals at the Asian Youth Cup Championships

Daijiworld Media Network - Jakarta (SP)

Jakarta, Aug 26: Eight-year-old Bharat Pereirakamath succeeded in adding yet another silver medal to his tally on day four at the Asian Youth Cup Championships in "sport climbing" at Bali-Indonesia, taking his total individual tally of medals to three silvers.

The latest silver was grabbed by him in the category 'bouldering' for spider kids under eight years of age. Earlier, he had won two other silvers for 'speed climbing' and for 'lead Climbing' on August 22 and 23 respectively. The other Indian challenge in the Junior Spider Kids category of "sport climbing" at the Bali Championships came from 11-year-old Chea Amelia Marak also from Bangalore, who won a silver on August 22 for speed climbing in the category, 'Spider Kids Girls 10-13 years.'

An ecstatic Keerthi Pais of Outback India, coach of the Indian Climbing team participating in the Asian Youth Cup being held at Bali, Indonesia, from August 20 to 24, reported via email on August 22, that in her run up to the finals, Chea overcame the stiff challenge of more favoured climbers from China, Indonesia and Thailand, exhibiting her killer instincts without succumbing to pressures from the crowd, but narrowly missed gold, when she was knocked out by the other Indonesian finalist in a thrilling finish, where the Indonesian beat Chea by just two seconds to bag the gold.

In the  under eight years category of 'spider kids' for boys, Bharat Pereirakamath, who had qualified among the four finalists for speed climbing, went on to beat Indonesian climber Dicky by a convincing 10 seconds, but in the run up for the gold on August 22, was knocked out by another Indonesian with a margin of eight seconds.

However, it was Chea's thrilling run and close finish that cornered accolades, even from the host crowds who dubbed her effort as the pick of the day, for putting behind four top climbers with her brave fight.

Eight-year-old Bharat Pereira of Bangalore's Clarence High School is reportedly the youngest-ever from India to participate in an international meet for sport climbing.

11-yr-old Chea, the only other participant to qualify at the Bali Meet, is the student of Bishop Cotton High School, Bangalore.

The shocking fact is that, these wonder kids from India have received no state or country sponsorship, and after getting selected at the last year's nationals, have had to fund their own way to the Bali-Indonesia Youth Cup Championships, through the support of Outback India, a private sporting club promoting and specializing in 'sport climbing.' Reportedly, the only support from the state was received in the form of an authorization letter from the Karnataka State Sports Authority to Outback India, to participate in the International Meet without State funding.

The meet was organized by the Government of Indonesia, as part of their international sporting activity for the month of August 2008, under the auspices of the International Federation of Sport Climbing.

Bharat Pereira's father Subhash works in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia, but his mother Bharati stays at Bangalore.