When 'average student' Varun Thakkar found an avenue to excel in sailing!

Academics rarely interested Tokyo-bound sailor Varun Thakkar. It was sailing that came to his rescue at a young age.

He was never one of those who lead the way in school exams, but the Chennai-based Thakkar's early success in sailing meant he had found an avenue to excel in.

"Sailing brought discipline in my life. A lot of people get 90 percent in academics and in sailing there is only one winner,Thakkar, who will contest in the49er event at Tokyo 2020 with his partner KC Ganapathy, told Olympics.com over the phone. "So when I used to win in that, it was like I'm in the 90 percent gang."

"The family support was always there. I wasn't great in academics but sailing gave me an opportunity to excel in something apart from academics. So, my family did support me a lot. They never questioned whenever I got the results. They saw I was working hard and wasn't getting distracted."

It was, in fact, Varun's father, who was interested in sailing and would take him along for an exposure ride off the coastal city of Chennai.

"He (Varun's father) has a clearing and forwarding (shipping) agency in Chennai. He handles all the custom clearance to make sure the parcels reach the other country and it reaches you," Thakkar said.

"I had an exposure (in sailing) because he (Varun's father) was there and saw that activity. He saw that and introduced us and took it up. Started (sailing) at around 6 or 7. My dad used to sail on Sundays and he said to us (me and my sister) 'why don't you guys join'. We both went sailing and that's how it started," he recalled.

Thakkar was nearly seven years old when he first tried his hand at sailing.

"I stopped for a bit because I was too young to understand the sport. Then at 10, started sailing again. I was based in Chennai but went for camps in Singapore and other countries," Thakkar said.

And the 26-year-old has now come a long way to make his maiden appearance at the Olympics in Tokyo.

It was an unreal feeling for Thakkar to qualify for the Games through the Asian Olympic Sailing Qualification Championships in Oman but he has now set his sights to finish in the top 10 at Tokyo 2020.

"It was an unreal feeling. We worked for 8-10 years for it. Had put in the hard yards. A lot of stress was gone once we crossed the line. It was a lot of weight lifted off our shoulder," Thakkar said.

"(At Tokyo) Realistic goal would be a top 10 finish. Since it's our maiden Olympics, we expect to do our best," he added.

Thakkar, however, is still to begin his training for the Games in the crucial months as he awaits the final formalities before departing to Portugal.

"I've my visa ready now. All the Olympic teams which have qualified have decided to meet at this place and train against each other as well. We are all helping each other as the sailing community is pretty close. We stay together, train together. Most of the top teams are going to come here," he added.