On June 4, 2017, 13-year-old Kayaan Anklesaria of India who won four medals, the highest individual medal tally, at the World Children’s Winners’ Games in Moscow was declared champion of the meet and given the honor of lowering the Games flag at the closing ceremony. Five hundred participants from 16 countries along with their parents, team leaders and fans witnessed the closing ceremony, noted the Games website. Organized by the non-profit organization Gift of Life that was founded by famous Russian actresses Dina Korzun and Chulpan Khamatova in 2006 to aid families whose children are battling various oncological diseases, the Winners’ Games are "more than a mere athletic event. They are a celebration for those children who have won their main victory over illness… The greatest accomplishment and glory for them is the ability to feel free, to move around, to do sports.”
Studying in Std IX at St Mary’s School, ICSE, Anklesaria won a gold medal in table tennis, a silver in chess and two bronze in rifle shooting and football. The School website featured his accomplishments under "King Kayaan: Nothing is impossible.” Diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2014, Kayaan had to face an arduous year of surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and pathology tests before he was declared free of the disease. Appreciating the medical guidance of Drs Dev Pujari, Anahita Hegde, Rakesh Jalali and Girish Chinnaswamy, his mother Shernaz is also grateful to friends and family, especially her mother Hilloo Elavia who was the mainstay with younger daughter Shanaya being just a year old when Kayaan took ill. While Shernaz worked for 22 years as support officer with the British Consulate in Bombay, husband Sarosh is employed with a cruise liner. Residents of Tata Housing Society in Parel, the family are regular visitors to Wadia Agiary in Lalbaug. Acknowledging the healing presence of Dinyar Bharucha and the "divine grace of Dadar Ahura Mazda,” Shernaz added, "It was He who literally carried us in our difficult times.”
Initially the family was hesitant to participate in the Winners’ Games but knowing Kayaan’s love for sports, singing and dancing they pursued. During the summer holidays he spent two months training at the Parthe Academy for table tennis, with Sharad Vaze at Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) for chess, at Prabhodhan Thackeray Shooting Range for rifle shooting and at St Xavier’s sports ground for football. A member of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet athletic team, Kayaan has been training under coach Dara Doomasia whom he considers his mentor both on and off the field. The Indian contingent comprised 14 children accompanied by their leader Ameeta Bhatia, a social worker with the TMH. They won 26 medals for India.
Kayaan Anklesaria (top and above) with Shernaz, Shanaya and Sarosh
Congratulating the winners at the closing ceremony, six-time Paralymic champion Sergei Shilov who has been attending the Winners’ Games every year reminded, "After long months and sometimes years of complicated medical treatment, it is sports that helps us return to life. A child starts training, sets certain goals for himself and reaches those goals. He wants to be faster, better, sharper, works on his skills and disciplines himself. Then come competitions which bring new acquaintances and friends. All this helps the child later in life.”