This girl can sail

Ayesha Lobo hopes to represent India in 2012 London Olympics

MUMBAI: Ayesha Lobo had always been a kid with a difference. She started sailing at the tender age of 10 and now at 17 is one of the promising young sailors to take up the sport.

For her, yachting is a sport that brings a tremendous feeling of freedom, away from the ordeal and stress of daily living.

“I have been sailing for the last 7 years. At 10, my dad’s friend took me sailing and I fell in love with it. The wind in my hair and the water spraying in my face was so wonderful, that I had to pick it up,” said Ayesha.

So, she nagged her dad into joining the sport and took up a beginners’ class.

Eight months in, she took part in the National Optimist Sailing Championship in Chennai in 2001.

Her goal for the future is to get a good ISAF ranking and represent India at the 2012 London Olympics.

And as for developing the sport in Mumbai, she said, hopefully in about five years, Mumbai will have a Marina and sailing will be a popular sport which will receive tremendous support from both the state and the central governments.

She ends it with saying that sailing makes her feel like a bird flying in the wind.