Shahan guides India to creditable 10th place finish in BMW GS Trophy

Bengaluru: The Indian trio of Sardar Shahan Khan, Dev Venkatesh and Anand Dharesan finished tenth out of 22 participating nations at the BMW GS Trophy in Namibia.

The biennial eight-day event returned to the African continent and posed a difficult challenge with its loose and sandy gravel and unrelenting terrain. The riders were put through different skill-specific enhancement tests across the stages.

Overall, the Indian team garnered 134 points, finishing just seven points behind third place.

Bengaluru's Shahan, the youngest participant in the event, recounted the experience and lamented how technical errors derailed the team's progress. It was the first time that an Indian team finished in the top 10.

"We had a good run this time. Because of some technical errors, we fell back from the top three to tenth place," Shahan told DH.

"Namibia is filled with desert, river beds and animals. We rode 1300 kilometres and out of that, 900-1000 kilometres was just sand and stones. You need a lot of practice for that. Overall, it was a very good experience," Shahan said.

Shahan, a final year student at St Joseph's, has been riding bikes since he was five years and is currently pursuing political science. The 21-year-old wore bandages on both hands, and mentioned that he suffered a crash on the third day of the competition. Despite suffering bruises and a dislocated finger, Shahan managed to compete in and finish all the stages.

"I had a huge crash on the third day. We finished Stage one and were second after the navigation challenge. While the navigation stage was happening, I fell down and both my hands impacted sharp rocks. I had deep cuts on both hands.

"My crash happened at the 100 km mark. I was riding at 100 kmph but because my hands were hurt, I was holding the handlebars using my fingers. There was a big rut that I did not see. My handle whipped, I fell sideways and crashed. The right side of my face was bruised, my palms were hurt and left thumb was dislocated. The medics were fantastic and fixed me up within hours. My marshal urged me not to race, but I completed the race," Shahan said.

Shahan talked about how he and his team prepared for the event in Rajasthan, and that he plans to participate in the Indian National Rally Championships next.

"We trained in Rajasthan for a couple of days in deep sands with Vijay Parmar, but we did not expect the Namibian sand to be ten times softer. Definitely I ate that too much," Shahan said with a chuckle.

"We can only participate in the GS trophy once in our lifetime, but Dev and I want to create something similar in India for adventure riders. We see that hunger and talent. I want to bring that talent up. I plan to participate in the INRC in Karnataka and Rajasthan. My ambition is to compete in Dakar in the next two-three years, and will start training for it," Shahan signed off.