Three athletes. Three different water sports. One common sporting home — Alappuzha.
When India’s Asian Games contingent is discussed, the conversation naturally gravitates towards cricket, athletics, badminton, shooting or hockey. But away from those familiar names, athletes from less-covered disciplines are also carrying the Indian flag onto the international stage.
Among them are three women from Kerala — G. Parvathy in kayaking, Megha Pradeep in canoeing and Aleena Anto in rowing — whose journeys share a particularly interesting connection: the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre at Punnamada, Alappuzha.
Their stories offer a glimpse into a sporting side of Alappuzha that exists alongside its famous boat races and backwaters.
Three athletes, three journeys
For G. Parvathy, the journey into kayaking began while she was still a school student. She started training at the Sports Council's Vellayani centre in 2016, when she was in Class 9, before moving to the SAI centre in Alappuzha in 2022.
The Alappuzha native, daughter of Sajeev and Geetha, has already experienced the Asian Games environment, having been part of India's previous Asian Games contingent. She is also associated with the Indian Navy.
Her recent international record includes gold medals in singles and doubles at the 2025 Asia Cup Canoe Sprint Championship. At the 2026 Asian Games, Parvathy competed in India's women's kayak events, including the K2 500m and K4 500m. India reached the K4 final, finishing eighth, while Parvathy and Soniya Devi Phairembam finished fifth in their K2 500m semifinal.
Then there is Megha Pradeep, another Alappuzha product whose sporting journey began remarkably early.
The daughter of N Pradeep and Sreekala from Kuttanad, Megha started canoeing as a Class 5 student and has trained at the SAI centre in Alappuzha since 2017. She has also broken new ground as the first woman to earn a place in the Indian Army's kayak and canoe team.
Her progression has included a bronze at the 2024 Asian Canoe Sprint Championship in the women’s C1 500m event and a historic Under-23 World Championship achievement in 2025, when she became the first Indian woman to reach the final of the 500m singles event. She also won gold in both the C1 200m and C1 500m, silver in the C2 500m at the Asian Games test event in Japan earlier in 2026.
At Aichi-Nagoya, Megha competed in the women's canoe sprint events. She advanced to the semifinal of the C1 200m before finishing fourth and missing the final.
The third story takes us from Alappuzha's waterways to the rowing course.
Aleena Anto began training at the SAI centre in Alappuzha in 2018, when she was in Class 8. Originally from Wayanad, Aleena has represented Kerala at three National Games and later became part of the Inspire Institute of Sport's support programme.
Her international progress has included a bronze medal in the women’s coxed eight at the 2025 Senior Asian Rowing Championship in Vietnam. In 2026, she formed part of India's women's four alongside Poonam, Tendenthoi Devi Haobijam and Gurbani Kaur. The crew finished sixth in the Asian Games final. Aleena’s Asian Games event is generally listed as the women’s four / women’s coxless four
The Alappuzha connection
What makes these three journeys particularly interesting is not simply that they come from Kerala. It is that rowing, canoeing and kayaking — three technically demanding international sports — intersect at the same sporting ecosystem in Alappuzha.
The city is globally associated with its canals, backwaters and traditional boat races. But beyond the spectacle of snake boats lies another sporting culture: athletes training year-round for national and international competition in Olympic and Asian Games disciplines.
The SAI centre at Punnamada has been part of that ecosystem for years. The fact that Parvathy, Megha and Aleena progressed through the centre at different stages of their careers highlights how important such training environments can be for sports that rarely receive the same attention as India's mainstream disciplines.
And there is something deeply Kerala about the story.
For generations, the state's relationship with water has been cultural. For these athletes, it has become competitive, professional and international.
More than an Asian Games story
Their Asian Games campaigns may now be measured in semifinal positions, finals and finishing places. But the larger story is about the journey before those results appeared on a scoreboard.
It is about schoolchildren discovering a sport, coaches identifying potential, early-morning training, institutional support and years of repetition — eventually leading to an Indian jersey at one of Asia's biggest sporting events.
Parvathy, Megha and Aleena represent three different sporting paths, but their journeys converge in one place: Alappuzha.
And perhaps that is the story worth remembering.
Because behind India's Asian Games contingent are athletes whose names may not always dominate headlines, but whose journeys reveal where India's next generation of sporting talent is being built — sometimes quietly, beside the waterways of Kerala.
