Uttarkashi athlete makes India rugby squad by chance

Dehradun/Uttarkashi: A 20-year-old athlete from the remote village of Bhadrasu in Mori block of Uttarkashi, who had turned up for what she thought was a race trial three years ago, has become Uttarakhand’s first player to make it to India’s senior national women’s rugby team. Mahak Chauhan will be part of the Indian squad for the Central and South Asia 7s Rugby Championship, scheduled in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, from May 16 to 17.

Chauhan’s entry into rugby began by chance in 2023, when she went to Roorkee with a friend for a trial without knowing that the state rugby association was organising it. Until then, she had been a track-and-field athlete who had started competing in school events from class 3 and had later moved to Dehradun to train better. Earlier, she was also part of India U-20 team that won bronze in an international rugby championship in Malaysia.

Her father, Arvendra Singh Chauhan, a govt primary teacher in Uttarkashi, told TOI on Tuesday that Mahak had been “a very good sportsperson since school days”. “Pursuing her schooling in Uttarkashi, she had started playing in track-and-field events from class 3. She won many accolades, and when she got to class 9, she asked me to get her admitted to a school in Dehradun so that she could train better and pursue her future only in sports. I agreed and sent her to Dehradun, where she started practising for track-and-field events at the local sports college stadium,” he said.

He said the Roorkee trial changed the course of her sporting life. “In 2023, she went for a trial with one of her friends in Roorkee. She was under the impression that it was a race. She performed well without knowing that the state rugby association was organising the trials,” Chauhan said, adding that organisers, including the state coach of the women’s rugby team, noticed her performance and asked her to take up the sport.

“Till then, she was oblivious to the physical game. She called us and said she had been selected in the state rugby team, in which players hold an oval-shaped ball and run on the field. We also found the game odd as it was totally new for us. But she started doing well and was soon appointed captain of Uttarakhand U-18 girls’ rugby team. It was a sheer stroke of luck that she got into rugby, and now, in three years, she has become part of the senior national team. We have always supported her and will continue to do so,” her father said.

Treasurer of Uttarakhand Rugby Association and state rugby coach Ayush Saini said Mahak’s selection reflected her hard work and discipline. “In the initial days, she trained in the sand of the riverbed in Roorkee. From there, she is now representing India in the senior national team. It is also a proud moment for Uttarakhand,” Saini told TOI.