Aanchal Thakur’s brother seeks visa help from PM, Swaraj and Rathore

CHANDIGARH: India’s lone international medalist in skiing,

Aanchal Thakur

’s brother

Himanshu Thakur

, on Saturday, sought help from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, minister of external affairs Sushma Swaraj and sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore to get visa on arrival in Tehran,

Iran

.

Himanshu is going to take part in three Winter Olympics qualification races in the giant slalom category from January 15 onwards. Himanshu stands a chance to qualify for the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, having garnered a substantial number of points in earlier qualification races. His plight came to the fore when the 23-year-old tweeted tagging PM Modi, Swaraj and Rathore. Himanshu’s first tweet read: “I request @SushmaSwaraj Swaraj, external affairs minister, @Ra_THORe Rathore, sports minister and @narendramodi hon’ble prime minister to kindly help me. I want to race in Iran to qualify forwinter Olympics but host country is denying visa on arrival. Please read my next tweet.

He followed with another tweet: “@narendramodi ,@SushmaSwaraj ,career and qualifying opportunity are currently stranded Please extend help as I am only alpine skiier in the contention for qualification of winter Olympics. My races are on 15, 16 and this is my only opportunity.”

When TOI contacted Himanshu, he was in Iceland and was going to travel to Tehran on Sunday. Talking about his misfortune, Himanshu said, “I could have easily qualified for the Olympics last year, but it seems I am jinxed. During the 2017 Asian Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan, I could not complete the race due to an equipment malfunction.

“I missed two races in Bulgaria since my flight from Turkey to Bulgaria got delayed for more than five hours. Later, I missed a couple of races in Iceland due to bad weather. Now, I am going to Iran on a hope.”

Roshan Thakur, the father of Himanshu and secretary general of

Winter Games Federation of India

, said, “If the flight (to Tehran) reaches on time and Himanshu doesn’t get visa on arrival, all hopes of him qualifying for the Winter Olympics would be dashed. I don’t know what to do. While I was ecstatic after Aanchal won the country’s first-ever international bronze medal in skiing, Himanshu’s unfortunate circumstance is really heartbreaking.”

In his pursuit to qualify for the Winter Olympics, Himanshu started brilliantly, scoring 127 and 134 points during a qualification tournament in Turkey in March last year. In December, in another qualification tournament in Turkey, he improved his scores to 151 and 154 points. However, a qualification event that was supposed to be held in India was postponed after the snow at the peaks of Auli in

Uttarakhand

were found to be inadequate to conduct the event. Himanshu had represented India at the 2014 Sochi Olympics in Russia in the giant slalom category.