This girl can sail
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.
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.