National Junior Ski Competition begins at Auli
As many as 168 participants in 14 teams from Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand are participating in this five-day event that began on Friday.
Joshimath: Joshimath Municipal Board chairperson Rohni Rawat inaugurated the five-day National Junior Ski Competition at Auli on Friday. As many as 168 participants in 14 teams from Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand took out the march past. International skier Anchal Thakur led the oath ceremony.Several cultural programmes were also held as part of the inaugural function. SS Pangti, president of the Winter Games Association, Uttarakhand, was present at the inauguration ceremony held on Friday.SS Patwal, chairman, Winter Games Federation of India, said the federation was planning to hold the International Ski Competition under FIS (Federation Internationale de Ski), the international ski federation of Switzerland, in December 2014 at Auli.
He said the efforts are also on to hold the second SAF (South Asian Federation) winter games in 2015 at Auli. Slalom and Giant Slalom ski competitions would be held for the juniors and sub juniors, while cross-country skiing would be held for the adults, in which teams from Indo-Tibetan-Border-Police (ITBP) and armed forces would also participate along with local teams from Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.
Puran Thakur, the coach of Himachal team, said their team that has many international skiers, would dominate in all the events.However, the teams from Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir are the hot favourites of the audience and the competitions between them are expected to be close ones.