Excelsior Sports Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Jan 3: The 15th National Ice Speed Skating Championship concluded at Gulmarg today with great fun fare among too many skaters, officials, enthusiasts and tourists. The last session of the championship was held today morning.
Director Tourism, Nisar Ahmad Wani, was chief guest and Chief Executive Officer GDA, Dr Hanief Balki was guest of honour on the 4th session who distributed medals and mementos amongst the winners. Among others General Manager J&K Cable Car Corporation Riyaz Ahmad Malik, President Winter Games Association Abbas Wani, General Secretary Adventure Tour Operators Association Muhammad Yusuf, General Secretary ISAJK Ashraf Dijoo, Executive Engineer GDA, AR Dar, Hafeeza Hassan and Gurmeet Kaur of WGAJK and many other officials of ISAI, ISAJK, WGAJK and GDA were present on the medal ceremony.
After winning 8 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals the Karnataka State was declared the Overall Champions. Maharashtra was declared 2nd after winning 4 silver medals and J&K got 3rd place after winning 1 gold and 2 silver medals. Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh were declared 4th, 5th and 6th overall winners of the championship respectively. From J&K, Adeeb Wani played exceptionally well and won one gold and one silver medals, while Umar won silver medal in their 15-17 age groups.
On the concluding session of the National Championship the Ice Skating Association of India also held a special competition in Open Vasudha Trophy. This Trophy is dedicated exclusively for women skaters in which foreign women skaters could also participate. In the memory of late Vasuda, an ace skater of Delhi, who died at a very young age in 2015, her father Vinor Kumar Baheti launched it at Shimla few years back and is conducted regularly every year since then. The trophy carries Rs. 75,000, Rs 50,000 and 25,000 for first three position winners respectively. In addition to winners cash prizes, 20% is awarded to the Coaches of all winners. The first winner is also awarded a Trophy. This year the first three winners of Vasudha Trophy are Versha S. Puranik, Ashel D’Silva and Reetho Dinesh respectively, all from Karnataka.
Earlier, Advisor to Governor Khursheed Ahmad Ganai and Secretary Tourism also visited the championship and interacted with the participants. In their speeches, the Advisor and Director Tourism assured their full cooperation to make all national and state level winter sports events possible at Gulmarg
The vote of thanks was presented by Shabir Ahmad Wani, Coordinator of the Championship.
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