“Martial arts is a way of life in itself and it certainly has the ability to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. My interest in martial arts began at an early age when I used to watch the films of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee along with my father. That certainly led me to take up Karate when I was in class 2.
Later, I levelled up my training and pursued Kung Fu as well. In 2008, when I saw Abhinav Bhindra sir winning a gold medal for India at the Beijing Olympics for professional shooting, I made up my mind to train myself even harder and that led me to pursue Taekwondo in life. Back then, Taekwondo was the only recognised Olympic sport.
After receiving my black belt from Kukki Won, I had trained with Grandmaster Jayanth Reddy and later shifted my training base to Pune after my injury in 2019, currently training under Pravin Sonkul.
During my career in Taekwondo, I had set up four Guinness Book of Records. My first one was the most full contact elbow strikes (142) in a minute following with most full contact knee strikes (175) in three minutes, most single leg full contact knee strikes (87) while wearing 5kg ankle weights in three minutes and most side lunges in one minute (59) by a male in one minute. I have set this record beating the Pakistan record for 51 side lunges and have dedicated it to the Women safety initiative. I have even trained the self-defence techniques to 3,500 girls in various schools and colleges.
Having competed in various national and international tournaments over the years, the one thing I have realised in life is to keep backing up our strengths no matter what the situations are. I have suffered a few major injuries in my martial arts career but I never lost hope. I came back stronger every time I faced a setback. Today, I am the first Taekwondo Athlete from the Telugu States to Represent India in Olympic Ranking Games (hosted by Official World Taekwondo) at G-1 Championship in Russia Open 2021 & Albania Open 2021. I wish to continue my journey representing the country in Olympic ranking games in the future if I could get sponsors to pursue my dream.
I am extremely grateful for all my coaches, training staff and physios who had supported me in my journey so far. A special thanks to Charan, Sowmya, Ravi Mulupuru and all the other good Samaritans who have been a constant support in my journey. I would also like to thank the award-winning Author Jyoti Patel for accepting and writing Taekwondo – an Olympic Sports Book.
Right now I am in the process of levelling up my rankings to reach the Olympic stage and I am working hard for it.”