JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir regained the Champion’s trophy of the 22nd North Zone Sport Climbing Championship held at Salwan Public School, Mayur Vihar, New Delhi after a gap of six years. It was in the year 2010 that J and K had lost the trophy after remaining North Zone Champions continuously for five years from the year 2005 to 2009.
Unlike last year, when Delhi had edged past J and K on the last day of the competition to win the trophy, this year no state could match J and K’s might.
Completely dominating in the junior and sub junior categories J and K won 48 points against 23 by Delhi, who finished runner up, 20 by Haryana, nine by ITBP, six by Chandigarh and one by Uttar Pradesh.
In the Men’s category Speed Competition ITBP climbers made a clean sweep by winning the first three positions while Delhi won the gold in lead as well as Bouldering competitions. In Women’s Lead and Bouldering Competitions also Luxmi of Delhi bagged both the titles. Then it was the turn of Govind of Haryana who won both the Lead and Bouldering titles in the Junior Boys category. And it was all the other states could achieve.
The comeback of the J and K climbers was so strong and dominating that they won almost all the medals in rest of the categories of Junior Girls, junior Boys, Sub Junior Boys and Sub Junior Girls.
Asma Gul, a sixth class student of Sprawling Buds School, Jammu, became an instant celebrity, winning three gold medals in Lead, Speed and Bouldering in the Sub Junior Girls category. Shivani Charak, followed her with a haul of three gold medals in the Junior Girls category. Then it was Arun Deep Singh Charak who impressed with his power and speed to clinch the Speed and Bouldering titles and second place in Lead competition in the Sub Junior Boys Category. Mrityunjay also performed well to claim the Jr. Boys title in speed climbing and silver medal both in Lead and bouldering competitions. Shilpa was at her best to share the bouldering title with Shivani and clinch second place in Speed and third place in lead competition in the junior girls category. Sumiya Kousar, who made a comeback in the North Zone after a gap of four years, did well to bag a silver medal in Bouldering in the Women’s category. Kumari Bindia Sharma, the senior most climber of J and K, also performed to her full potential to clinch a silver and bronze medal in Speed and Lead climbing in the women’s category. Much was expected of Ajay Deep Singh in the Sub Junior category but somehow he missed the top slot and could win only silver in Speed climbing and a bronze each in Lead climbing and Bouldering. The other J and K climbers who impressed with their climbing skills in various categories but remained medal less were Ambreen Fatima, Nitya Sharma, Ritesh Sharma, Randeep Singh and Rudra Partap Singh.
However, the darling of the crowd turned out to be Keshwam Dev Singh, a nine years old diminutive climber of J and K who impressed all by his aggressive climbing. He received the biggest applause while honored with a special prize.
In all, J and K won 21 medals including 10 gold (one extra for the shared top slot) seven silver and four bronze. The team sponsored by J and K State Sports Council was led by Shashi Kant Sharma, a local trainer, who has been coaching the team for the last about seven months.