17-year-old Akshit Gaur set to participate in Rumble in the Jungle, an international cross-country marathon cycle race
How often does it happen that the youngest rider at an International Mountain Biking Stage race is an Indian boy? Almost never. Well actually, never ever. Times, however, are changing.
Akshit Gaur, a young boy from the small town of Shimla, is writing history. About a week ago, this young boy was anxiously waiting for his class 12 results (in which he did really well by the way), and now in a week’s time, he will be competing in an international MTB race.
Akshit at age 17 will become the youngest rider to start the Cross Country Marathon style race – Rumble in The Jungle – in Sri Lanka. Not only is he the only Indian in that race, he is also the youngest rider.
The race is a four-stage one, covering close to 300 km over four days. What makes this a really big challenge is the amount of climbing involved. Riders will climb close to 8,000m in four days over the off-road sections, mountain ranges and tea gardens of Sri Lanka.
There are a few other things too that make Akshit’s participation in the race a special occasion for all sports lovers in India.
The race has a great participation field, including the likes of Cory Wallace (a former World No. 18, three-time Canadian National Champion and winner of Hero MTB Himalaya in 2014) and Sonya Looney. To stand at the start line with men twice his age, who have much more experience, strength and guile, and still believe that he can challenge them, is what makes Akshit a real hero.
This is just the beginning; he will continue to race many races in the coming years. But this one will always be special. The transition from a boy to a man happens in very subtle ways. For him, this is that moment, and a lot of young aspirants watching him would take this as a source of inspiration too.
Flag bearer of hope
Akshit was spotted in one of the first school programs conducted by HASTPA with the support of Hero Cycles. This was an initiative where HASTPA scouts went to schools with the objective of picking prospective talent and providing them with the requisite infrastructure, equipment and training to develop them into world class athletes.
Akshit was initially enrolled in the Hero Action Team back in March 2016. And his participation in Rumble in the Jungle now is a manifestation of that dream; it represents hope. Maybe the impact would be more symbolic than tangible, but the symbolism is essential for people to start believing in a concept. It is essential for people to believe that there is a future in a sport called cycling; that there is a future in being an athlete in India.
Irrespective of the results of the race, this will be the impetus for a lot of our youngsters to take up the sport.
A consistently stellar performer
Since his introduction into the sport and then into the Hero Action team, this kid has made quite a mark for himself. He is the most rapidly rising performer at MTB races in India. In 2016 he won the student category of the Hero MTB Shimla by a mile and was second overall (across all age groups). He even beat the national U19 Champion by some margin.
He came back and won the Hero MTB Shimla in 2017 as well, and finished the Nationals in seventh place owing to a crash on the first lap. He won the MTB Nainital students’ category too (3rd overall).
Akshit has shown tremendous character, skill and pressure-handling ability in almost every race in which he has participated. And these are qualities that could take him a long way; they are the qualities that separate good athletes from the great ones.
If Akshit manages to secure a top 10 position in this race, his confidence will be boosted for many miles to come. It will also help bring the sport into the corporate limelight.
"Akshit is the manifestation of our dream. Hero HASTPA School programs were started in 2014 with an aim to pick top talent from various schools and then provide them with a platform to further improve their skills.
“With the support of Hero Cycles, we have been able to cover more than 100 schools reaching out to over 15,000 students since the conception of the program. The idea is to nurture a future Olympian in the sport from India and we are fully committed towards the cause,” said Mohit Sood, President of HASTPA.
“With the Hero Action Team and the races, we are actually able to fulfil a dream for a lot of young aspirants. All this was possible with the help and support of Hero Cycles and UT Bikes. A lesser known sport like Mountain Biking needs a lot of corporate backing and Hero Cycles has shown the way,” Sood added.
Akshit Gaur is showing the way too. Now it’s on us to decide how far we want him to lead us.