Chennai’s young karate champion V.Tharun could be India’s next big bet in sport. His dream is to become a Major in the Indian army and serve the country.
Tharun bagged medals and awards for his exceptional talent in karate. He is studying in class X at Alpha CBSE School. Hailing from a humble pot-maker’s family, he dreams big and of participating in the Olympics and Asian Games in near future to represent the country and to make India proud.
Tharun started his journey in karate in 2014 with All India Kenshukai Isshinryu Karate Club, was trained by Kyoshi Rajkumar, the chief examiner and technical director of the club. His skilful mastery of the martial art earned him the opportunity to participate in the first state karate championship organised by Learn to Win-Martial Art School where he won a silver medal in Kumite (fighting).
The same year he also participated in the state level championship organised by the Zen Isshinryu Karate Association and won a silver medal in Kumite (fighting) and bronze medal in Kata. The next milestone was participating in the national level karate championship in 2017 organised by Karate Federation of India where he bagged a silver medal. Following this, he put in a lot of work and with determination won 3 gold medals in Kumite (fighting) and 2 gold medals in Kata in five state karate tournaments.
This was followed by the coveted black belt from his trainer Kyoshi Rajkumar in 2018. He also received the best performance award for Kumite in the black belt camp. 2018 took him a notch further and he won gold at the district karate championship in Kumite and a silver. Tharun moved on to the state level karate championship and won 2 gold medals. In the same year, he participated in 2 national level karate tournaments and won 3 gold medals and 1 silver medal.
In December 2018, he was selected for the Indo-Sri Lankan open karate championship - 2018 which was held in Kerala and won a silver medal in the Cadet Kumite. 2019 proved to be a turning point in his life. He participated in a state level karate championship held in Cudallore and bagged 2 gold medals. It was organised by the Indian Karate Federation. He was then selected for the Indo-Malaysia international karate championship held in Thoothukudi and won a gold medal in Cadet Kumite and a silver medal in Kata. He was selected for the international karate championship where India, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, England, Malaysia, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nigeria took part. It was held in Visakhapatnam and he won a gold medal in Kumite and a bronze medal.
Tharun also won gold medal in Kumite in the 1st WSKF South Asian karate championship held at jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Chennai on May 4 and 5, organised by The world shotokan karate do federation of India.
A resident of Lake View Road, West Mambalam Tharun is now a member of the World Karate Federation and Sport Accord and International World Games Association. His father Velan, a small time vendor and mother Lavanya a housewife are working hard for his success. Tharun was born on the October 11, 2004 in Attur near Salem.
“I’m very passionate about karate and boxing. I have keen interest in sports since my childhood. I have some achievements in carrom, kho - kho, football and Shot Put besides very good in education too with good marks,” Tarun shares. “All of my achievements are only because of the support given by my parents, relatives, teachers and my friends. All of them play an important role in my life. They have encouraged me a lot to succeed in karate.”
He thanks master Kyoshi Rajkumar who’s another great inspiration for him. Without my master, all these would have just been dreams. I thank my master for training me to achieve so much, till my last breath I will play karate. My future plans, I would like participate in the upcoming world tournaments to get selected in Olympics and in Asian games,” adds the rising star.
