GULMARG, JANUARY 03: The 15th National Ice Speed Skating Championship concluded here on Tuesday with great fanfare as skaters, officials, sports enthusiasts and tourists had gathered to celebrate the New Year.
The 4th and last session of the Championship was held on Tuesday morning and two events were conducted during the session.
Director Tourism, Nisar Ahmad Wani, was Chief Guest and Chief Executive Officer-GDA, Dr. Hanief Balki was Guest of Honour on the occasion who distributed medals and mementos among winners.
General Manager J&K Cable Car Corporation Riyaz Ahmad Malik, President Winter Games Association Abbas Wani, General Secretary Adventure Tour Operators Association Muhammad Yusuf, Gen Secretary ISAJK Ashraf Dijoo, Executive Engineer GDA, and many other officials of ISAI, ISAJK, WGAJK, Tourism and GDA were also present during the medal ceremony.
After winning 8 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals, Karnataka state was declared Champions. With four silver medals, Maharashtra stood 2nd and J&K secured 3rd place in the championship as the state bagged one gold and two silver medals. Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh were declared 4th, 5th and 6th Overall winners of the Championship respectively.
For J&K Adeeb Wani played exceptionally well and won one gold and one silver medals and Umar won silver medal in their 15-17 age groups.
On the occasion, the Ice Skating Association of India held a special competition under Open Vasudha Trophy. The Trophy was dedicated exclusively for women skaters in which foreign women skaters also participated.
In the memory of late Vasuda, an ace skater of Delhi, who died at a very young age in 2015, her father Vinor Kumar Baheti launched this Trophy at Shimla few years back and is held y every year since then. The trophy carries cash prize of 75,000.50,000 and 25,000 for first three positions respectively.
In addition cash prizes to winners, 20% was awarded to the coaches of all winners. The first winner was also awarded a Trophy. This year the first three winners of Vasudha Trophy are Versha S. Puranik, AshelD’Silva and Reetho Dinesh respectively, all from Karnataka.
Earlier the Advisor to Governor Khursheed Ahmad Ganai and Secretary Tourism also visited the championship venue and interacted with the participants. In their speeches, the Advisor and Director Tourism assured their full cooperation to make all national level winter sports events possible at Gulmarg
The vote of thanks was presented by Shabir Ahmad Wani, Coordinator of the Championship. He expressed his gratitude to Tourism Dept, Gulmarg Development Authority, J&K Cable Car Corporation, Gulmarg Municipality, SHO, Winter Games Association of J&K and Gulmarg Hoteliers Association. He extended special gratitude to the officials of Championship K. Srikantha Rao of Karnataka, Ravi Dhillon of Delhi, Muhammad Yusuf, Ashraf Dijoo, Hafeeza Hassan, A.R. Dar and Gurmeet Kaur. He said it might not have been possible to hold the championship so successfully without their support.
