Written by Naman Anil Kumar, a grade 8 student

India has produced many great sportspersons who are very well known to us. But not many know about  Indians who have succeeded at extreme sports.  Now, let’s meet Aravind K P, a young biker from Karnataka who, in 2019, became the second Indian to complete the famous Dakar Rally.    

Who is Aravind KP

Aravind KP is a 35-year-old Indian biker from Udupi, Karnataka. He participated in the Dakar Rally 2019 and became the second Indian ever to complete all the stages of this tough competition.

What is Dakar Rally

 Dakar Rally is an annual rally raid conducted every year by Armaury Sport Organization. The idea of the Dakar Rally came up when Thierry Sabine, a motorcycle racer, got lost in the Ténéré desert and his search party had to ride around on bikes to look for him. Dakar is the toughest rally in the world and only off-road vehicles, such as bikes, quads, UTVs, and trucks, participate in it. It began in 1978, and till 2008, vehicles drove from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal. Participants drive through, deserts, grasslands, and rocky areas for hundreds of kilometers.

Aravind and the mighty Dakar Rally

Arvind grew up watching Kambala buffalo racing, a traditional sport of Karnataka. His love for bikes started when he was a kid. At the age of 19, he participated in the Gulf Dirt Track National Championship. Since then, he has won 15 national championships in dirt track racing, rallies, and Motocross.

Aravind became the first Indian to win the overseas Motocross championship, 2011, held in Sri Lanka.

In 2015, Aravind won almost all off-road Indian races including Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare, MRF Supercross, and Maruti Suzuki Raid De Himalaya.

He is the second Indian to finish the Dakar Rally in the year 2019. That year, the rally was held in South America. It started in Peru and had 10 stages. It was not easy for him. He trained really hard for the competition. He took three attempts before he finished the toughest rally, after battling physical injuries and many surgeries.

He says that he has learnt more from his failures than from his victories. His resilience, perseverance, and determination helped him to get through the tough beast, the Dakar Rally.

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