Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 22: Sport Climbing team of Mountaineering Association of J&K was flagged off today by Ashwani Kumar Sharma, Member Legislative Assembly, J&K for participation in the 20th North Zone Sport Climbing Championship scheduled to be held at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT, Kanpur) from September 25 to September 28, 2014.
The new look team led by Anil Kumar of R S Pura comprised of 18 boys and 14 girls in six categories of men, women, boys, girls, sub junior boys and sub junior girls. Sonam Sidharth, a senior climber is the coach and Shawetica Khajuria, a national judge in sport climbing, is the manager of the team. The State team has been sponsored by J&K State Sports Council.
The competitions will be held at the newly fabricated artificial climbing wall at IIT, Kanpur premises as per international rules. Besides the usual lead and speed competitions, bouldering competitions will also be organized in men, women, boys and girls catagories, However, sub junior boys and sub junior girls will compete in Lead Climbing only.
After the North Zone Competition, a 26-member team of IMF North Zone Committee will be selected for participation in the National Climbing Competition at Kolkata from December 4 to 7, 2014.
“The J&K team which has lately undergone rigorous training under national coaches, is expected to improve upon its previous performance and about 5-6 J&K climbers are expected to find a place in the Zonal team for the National competition,” informed Ram Khajuria.
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