First & Current OAI (Olympians Association of India) President and India’s rare participant in the Winter Olympics, Shiva Keshavan won gold at the Luge Asian Championships, today, at Nagano, Japan.
Shiva, a two-time Asian champion and holder of the Asian speed record, gave performance to his words just 2 days prior to the Christmas, ending the year on a high again. A jubilant Shiva wrote on his social media handle, Facebook, “Thrilled to announce that I’ve just won GOLD at the Luge Asian Championships 2016.”
Earlier, Before leaving for the Asian Championships 2016, the ace Luger had promised his fans for a repeat of his historic Gold five years back at the Asian Championships. Writing on his Social Media Handle, Facebook, he had said, “This was 5 years ago when I won the Asian Championship gold. Tomorrow I leave for Japan to try and repeat history. Jai Hind!”
Last year, a Five-time Olympian and face of winter sports in India, Shiva had won a silver medal at the Asian Championship in the race consisting of two heats closely contested by athletes. Though in the first heat Shiva was a mere 2/10th of a second behind, minor technical snags cost him the gold medal in the second heat. The first place was claimed by Japan’s Hidenari Kanayama, and third by Korea’s Dong Hyeon Kim.
2016 has been a good year for Shiva, Shiva was also elected as the first President of the newly constituted body of Indian Olympic Participants, Olympians Association of India. The year also brought a respite to his fund-related troubles as Micromax Informatics Ltd. announced that it will back the luge athlete for the 2018 Winter Olympics.