S Aswatha Narayan From Odisha Wins Gold At WorldSkills Contest

Bhubaneswar: Bringing glory to Odisha, S Aswatha Narayan won first-ever gold medal for India at 45th WorldSkills competition at Kazan, Russia, on Tuesday.

He bagged the gold in Water Technology.

Odisha Skill Development Authority (OSDA) Chairman Subroto Bagchi congratulated Aswatha on his win. He tweeted, “Competed in emerging water tech against developed countries. It is a testimony to the potential we have to be world-class. Congratulations Aswatha, come home soon.”

The 25-year-old was part of a 48-member strong team representing India in 44 skill contests. Xenophon Das (M-Cad event) and Abinash Swain (CNC Turning event) were the other two participants from Odisha.

The Indian team also clinched one silver and two bronze medals. Pranav Nutalapati (17) from Karnataka bagged silver medal in Web Technology. Sanjoy Pramanik (21) from West Bengal and Shweta Ratanpura (22) from Maharastra won a bronze each in Jewellery and Graphic Design Technology respectively.

More than 1,500 competitors from 60 countries participated in 55 skill competitions at this mega event. The average age of competitors was 22 with the youngest being 17 years.

During the last edition of the competition at Abu Dhabi in 2017, India had finished 19th among the 56 participating countries.

Earlier, Odisha had stood second in the medals tally in the country’s biggest skills competition, India Skills 2018, in New Delhi. Team Odisha comprising 33 competitors had won 19 medals, including 4 gold, 9 silver and 6 bronze.