Ishika guchhait

Khelo India Youth Games: The 14-year-old Ishika Guchhait’s father sells betel leaves and took up yoga at the insistence of her mother to add discipline to her life. Gujarat’s Heena Rajbhor is a successful model who is fascinated with the theory of Yoga shastra and has been passionately researching it.

Ishika, Heena, and the hundreds of yogasana athletes competing for India at the inaugural World Yogasana Championships at the EKA Arena here may belong to a different spectrum of society and got hooked to yoga for varied reasons, but their love for the sport and hard work ensured that the hosts dominated the competition that witnessed over 400 athletes from 78 countries vying for honours from June 4 to 8.

India expectedly finished with a whopping 114 medals (102 gold, nine silver, and three bronze) thanks to a coordinated effort between the national federation and the Sports Authority of India to provide the players with the best of training facilities in the run-up to the championships.