When this call went to Eabad, he was at his Asian Games base at the Ningbo Xiangshan Sailing Centre, a 140 km drive from the main city bustling with Games activity.
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“Packing kar rahe hain sir,” he said, and generously took a break to attend the call.
Eabad’s bronze was won in the Men’s Windsurfer RS:X event, where RS:X is the category of the boat. “Before I came to the Asian Games, my Commanding Officer, Olympian Colonel NS Johal, facilitated a new boat for me,” the 29-year old Havaldar of the Indian Army told TimesofIndia.com in Hangzhou.
He finished with 52 net points for a third position on the podium. The sailor with the least number of net points after all the races wins gold, which was won by South Korea’s Wonwoo Cho (13 net points). Natthaphong Phonoppharat of Thailand won the bronze with 29 net points.
(Photo Courtesy: TOI Special Arrangement)
The windsurfer RS:X event saw 14 races across six days from September 21 to 26.
Through those six days, Eabad’s family was doing something incredible to pray for his success. They fasted, or kept ‘rozas’, in a similar way that the family does during the month of Ramadan.
“They fasted from the day my competition began to the day of my final race,” Eabad shared.
(Photo Courtesy: TOI Special Arrangement)
Eabad is one of the two sons and five sisters, raised in a family that used to live on the meager earnings of the father who was a milkman.
“Now he doesn’t sell milk. Age has caught up with him, so he doesn’t work now,” Eabad said.
From that background to get into sailing is another story.
In 2013, he was recruited to the Indian army and trained at the 3 EME centre in Bhopal before being scouted for sailing, though Eabad says he used to love running.
(Photo Courtesy: TOI Special Arrangement)
“Since 2017, I have been training at the Army Yachting Node in Mumbai. I went to train for a month each in Korea and Thailand in preparation for the Asian Games in China, where we arrived 20 days earlier to acclimatize,” he further shared with TimesofIndia.com.
“I have received immense support from my Commanding Officer, Colonel Johal; coach Prakash Alexander and Yachting Association of India’s joint secretary general Captain Jitendra Dixit,” said Eabad in his note of thanks. “It’s because of their support that I have been able to win this medal.”
Another feeling close to Eabad’s heart is how luck has shone on him ever since he became a father.
(Photo Courtesy: TOI Special Arrangement)
“Yes, you can say that,” he said at the mention of him doing better in sailing ever since his son was born.
Back in Uncha Gaon, his son will soon be a year old, and the dad can’t wait to return home to hold him in his arms and proudly show him a medal that is historic in more ways than one.
