Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 25: As a part of series of one day coaching camp cum competitions in sport climbing being organized by Mountaineering Association of J&K for individual schools to spot the talent at the grass root level, the 8th such camp was organised by the Association at Tenzing Norgay Sport Climbing Wall in the premises of Sprawling Buds School, Chinore, here today.
A total of 50 students including 20 girls of Shangrilla Higher Secondary School, Sarwal, Jammu attended the day long coaching cum competition. The students, both boys and girls, were divided into various age groups for imparting them the necessary training in rock climbing. The budding climbers on their maiden exposure to the 40 ft high wall were quite excited and exhibited good temperament and courage to learn the intricacies of the art and craft of sport climbing.
In the competition that followed in the final session of the camp, 12 years old Aditya Kumar topped the wall to secure the first place in the Sub Junior Boys category. He was closely followed by Musaib Rasool, just a hold below the top, to clinch the second spot. Keshav Kohli and Akash Nehru also climbed well to finish as joint third. Similarly, there was a tough competition between Mritunjay Sharma and Ashish Kohli in the under 12 years category in which Mritunjay emerged victorious and Ashish Kohli had to be content with a second position. The third place was shared by Akshit Negi and Manik Kumar. In the Boys category (13 years) Noman and Ajay Singh share the first spot and Shoib Gulzar finished at the third place.
In the girls (13 years) category in which there were only 4 participants, the standard of climbing was not up to the mark. However, Vaishali did better than others to clinch the first position. Prakshi Gupta and Prachi Sharma bagged the second and third positions. Contrary to expectations, the little girls in the under 12 years category displayed good power and enthusiasm to make the competition really tough. Finally, Purvi Sharma and Nandini Kohli clinched the first and second position respectively. Hitashi Bhan, Nitya Sharma and Jannat Kour shared the third spot.
On the basis of performance of the climbers during the camp the Association has selected Aditya Kumar, Musaib Rasool, Keshav Kohli, Akash Nehru,Mritunjay Sharma, Ashish Kohli, Akshit Negi, Manik Kumar, Purvi Sharma, Nandni Kohli, Hitashi Bhan, Nitya Sharma, Jannat Kour and Vaishali for further coaching and practice to be conducted in the month of December, 2012.
The competition was organized under the supervision of Shawetica Khajuria, a national judge in sport climbing. Anil Kumar was the Route Setter of the competition who was assisted by Shashi Kant, Sonam Sidharth and other senior climbers. Ram Khajuria, general secretary of Mountaineering Association of J&K remained present throughout the camp along with S Tejinder Singh, Bittoo Sharma and Kuldeep Kumar of Shangrilla Higher Secondary School and Satish Bhan of Sprawling Buds School.
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