Srinagar: The 6th National SnowShoe Championship concluded at Gulmarg on Sunday.
The championship that was organised by J&K SnowShoe Association in collaboration with Directorate of Tourism Kashmir and under the auspices of SnowShoe Federation of India concluded on Sunday with the conduct of sprint events and medal ceremony held at IISM Gulmarg.
Director Tourism Kashmir Dr GN Itoo was chief guest on the occasion while as Director IISM Prof Alok Kumar, CEO Gulmarg, Ghulam Zargar Jeelani,
Dy Director Dr Ahsanul Haq Chisti, Assistant Director Tourism, Dr Javid Ur Rehman, Assistant Director Tourism Kashmir Zeeshan Khan, Snowshoe Federation of India (SSFI) Mir Mudassir, J&K SnowShoe Association, Tariq Zargar were other guests present.
The championship witnessed participation of around 100 athletes representing 10 State teams, HAWS and ITBP teams.
Terming this as a great initiative in the adventure sports tourism of Kashmir, Dr GN Itoo congratulated all the teams and organisers.
“I am happy to see this event turning out as great success and for that I congratulate everyone associated with it from Organisers to players and all the tourism staff that was associated with it,” Dr GN Itoo said.
“This is a new beginning and and future of this sport and activity is bright with a lot of potential,” he said.
He said the Tourism department is promoting adventure sports on a wide scale and this was part of that step.
Earlier SSFI President Mir Mudassir, said that with help from the Tourism Department this event has turned out as a great success.
“We are happy to see this event turning out as great success. We will try to conduct and host bigger events than this in coming years,” he said.
“We started our SnowShoe journey in India in 2015 and today we have established our units all over India. From the four-member contingent that took part in the World SnowShoe Championship in the year 2016 to having thousands of athletes regularly participating in the events, we have taken a big stride,” Mudassir said.
Assistant Director Tourism Zeeshan Khan termed the participants who have come from various parts of India for participation as ambassadors of Kashmir Tourism.
He gave out a vote of thanks and said that this event wouldn’t have been a success without the hard work of officials who worked at ground level.
Meanwhile Uttarakhandh emerged as overall winners of the championship while Maharashtra second and J&K third.
