From Kozhikode to Paris: Fayis cycles his way to Olympics to cheer for Neeraj Chopra
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Paris: He covered 22,000 kilometres over two years and is currently in Paris to witness the ongoing Olympics Games! When Fayis Asraf Ali, a native of Kozhikode, arrived in the French capital on his bicycle on Monday, it marked the culmination of an exciting as well as arduous journey.
Fayis, who began his solo expedition on August 15, 2022, cycled across 30 countries to reach Paris. He was accorded a warm reception at the India House, established by the Reliance Foundation in partnership with the Indian Olympic Association in connection with Paris 2024 Olympics.
During his journey, he stopped at the Hungarian capital of Budapest last August. It was when he came to know that the Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Neeraj Chopra was there to attend the World Athletics Championship. With the help of national team's athletics coach and Keralite P Radhakrishnan he met the ace javelin thrower. According to Fayis, Neeraj told him "since you are going to London why don’t you come to Paris for the Olympics".
"I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to see Neeraj again in Paris, so I altered my plan a bit and procured the required visa and cycled to the UK before ending my journey here," Fayis said and added that he was eager to see Neeraj make history again.
"I never stay in a hotel. I have got some sponsors on the way and that's it. Members of the Rotary Club have also helped me. In between, I flew to Kerala twice to arrange visas. During the journey, I made it a point to cover at least 150 kilometres each day," he said.
Fayis, who set off with a mission to cycle from "India to London to spread peace and unity" on India's 75th Independence Day, is an engineer by profession. His expedition was flagged off by Education Minister V Sivankutty in Thiruvananthapuram.
Fayis's journey to Paris was on a Surly bicycle, which costs around Rs 2.5 lakh His maiden bicycle solo trip was from Kozhikode to Singapore in 2019.
Fayis is married to Dr. Azmin and the couple has two children, Fahzin Omar and Isin Nahel.