Sports Reporter
JAMMU: Sport Climbers from the State created history winning highest ever eight medals, including one Gold, four Silver and three Bronze in the 22nd National Sport Climbing Championship which concluded at Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore the other day.
Arun Deep Singh bagged three medals with Gold in Speed Climbing. His other medals came in Lead Climbing (Silver) and in Bouldering (Bronze) in the Sub Junior Boys’ category while Shivani Charak, last year’s Speed champion in Girls category, won three Silver medals in Lead, Speed and Bouldering events. Aman Dogra, last year’s Speed Champion in Boys category, could win a Silver medal only in the same event. Mrityunjay Sharma, another talented climber of J and K, added another medal to State’s kitty by winning a bronze in Speed in Boys category.
“Other J and K climbers, who represented the North Zone after excelling in the zonal level competition, somehow remained medal less. Ajay Deep Singh who had raised vision of two medals by clocking the best time in the preliminary round of Speed Climbing and reaching the final round in Lead climbing by topping the 50 ft high climbing wall in the semifinal could not repeat his performance in the next round and finished medal less.” Informed General Secretary of the J and K Mountaineering Association, Ram Khajuria said. Much was expected of Asma Gul, the North Zone Sub Junior Girls Champion in all the three forms of Sport Climbing, but she just could not withstand the high pressure of national competition and failed to win a medal, he maintained.
Overall, it was an excellent performance by the nine member team with seven climbers making it to the final rounds in various forms of competitions and four climbers winning one Gold, four Silver and three Bronze medals in their respective categories. The State team was sponsored by J and K State Sports Council. On its return from the National Championship on Friday, the team along with the Secretary and Joint Secretary (Shawetica Khajuria) called on the Joint Secretary, J and K State Sports Council, Shiv Kumar Sharma, who congratulated the climbers for their brilliant performance in the National Competition and hoped that the climbers would work more hard and win the National Cham-pionship next year. He assured all possible help from the Sports Council for the promotion of the game.
