NEW DELHI: In a noble gesture that would motivate the underprivileged youth to take up challenges and work hard to realise their dreams, President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday gifted a racing bicycle to a 16-year-old school boy Riyaz, who aspires to become a professional cyclist.
Riyaz, who hails from Madhubani district of Bihar, works as a dishwasher in an eatery to support his father’s meagre income and continues to pursue his passion for cycling while he practises even harder after his work.
The bicycle which was delivered to Riyaz on Friday, a day before Eid-alAdha, came as Eidi from the President, in true spirit of the festival. Riyaz studies in Class 9 at Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya at Anand Vihar in Delhi. While Riyaz stays in a rented accomodation in Ghaziabad’s Maharajpur to work as a dishwasher in an eatery, his parents, two sisters and one brother live in Madhubani.
According to the District Magistrate, Ghaziabad, Riyaz won the bronze medal in Delhi State Cycling Championship in 2017 and went on to participate in a school games event in Guwahati, where he achieved fourth rank at the national level.
Riyaz has also been taking professional training from a coach, Pramod Sharma and regularly trains at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Delhi. Till now, he was training on a borrowed sports cycle and wished to own a cycle of his own. As the President came to know of his struggle through media reports, he fulfilled Riyaz’s wish on the occasion of Eid.
President Kovind, complimenting Riyaz for his achievements despite all struggles, wished him very best in life and said that his story should act as an inspiration for the nation’s youth who must come forward for the country’s development and must give in their full dedication, hard work, courage and honesty. “I am thankful to the President for gifting me a cycle and also to the people who helped spread my story. I did not receive much support from my family, but I want to become an Olympics athlete in future,” said Riyaz.
