Rabindra Sarobar:

A pair of childhood best friends whose special bond extends to competitive rowing have just fulfilled their dream of becoming national champions.

Aishwarya Krishnan, 19, and Shreya Iyer, 20, together won Bengal’s only gold medal in the Senior National Championships in Pune from December 6 to 11. The duo defeated Chandigarh and Odisha in the 500m women’s double sculls with a timing of 1:43.5.

Metro had highlighted the girls’ journey through friendship and rowing on February 6 after they won a silver medal in the same event of the previous national championships.

“The Odisha team had Asian medallists. Beating them to win gold this time was extra special,” said Aishwarya, who is studying in St. Xavier’s College.

Since becoming partners in double sculls in 2015, the two of them have won several tournaments but losing to Odisha in the Bhopal championships had hurt.

The night before the rematch, Shreya lost count of the number of times she woke up. “I was super pumped up, all adrenaline!” Shreya, who is in Loreto College, recounted.

Aishwarya said her mind was blank. “I just wanted to give 100 per cent.”

On December 10, the Bengal duo led from start to finish. The celebrations were briefly halted by Aishwarya throwing up – she blames it on one egg too many for breakfast – but the pair later took the Bengal contingent out for a pizza lunch.

What clicks for the pair is their chemistry. “I can go all out for her and she for me. What you need in a team game comes to us naturally,” said Shreya, who also loves to play the violin.

Their next target? Doing well in 2000m events.

They are considering moving out of Bengal because it lacks a water strip for 2,000m practice.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta,India / Home> Calcutta / by Debraj Mitra / December 27th, 2017