The 12-year-old was always interested in gymnastics and skating; he took to yoga seriously under J Manohar Kumar, who is an instructor at DRS International School. In a matter of 18 months, young Tarun has scaled great heights. He has hogged the limelight in every event in which he has participated. He first caught the eye of yoga experts in the Ranga Reddy District Yoga Association Championship, where he stood first. He followed it up with a stellar performance at the State level school games where he again bagged the gold medal. Tarun says, “I was fascinated looking at Ramdev Maharaj on television and wanted to learn yoga. Luckily for me, we have yoga classes at school and under Manohar Sir, I am learning a lot.” Tarun is good at all forms of yoga, but is interested in artistic yoga. His coach Manohar says, “In a span of one year he has progressed well. He took part in two state-level championships and stood fourth at the national level. He is very good at artistic yoga and we are expecting an international medal at Colombo in July.” Tarun is the only boy from Andhra Pradesh to have been selected in the sub-junior category to take part in the 2ndAsian Yoga Championship to be held at Colombo during July 13-15, 2012. Chakrapani, Tarun’s father, says that yoga is helping the boy not just in keeping fit, but has also made him disciplined. He gets 90-95 per cent marks and is doing equally well in studies. He opines, “Yoga should be recognised as a sport. By doing so, many more will take to it and also once it is recognised as a sport, there will be reservation for admissions to colleges and universities.” Tarun is presently preparing for the championship in the island nation. Going by the past record and the number of hours that he puts in daily, there are all chances that he will be bagging a medal. Source: The Hans India
