The Junior National Winter Games and Cross Country competition began at Auli on Friday. A total of 14 teams from across the country are participating in this event. Joshimath municipality chairperson Rohini Rawat was the chief guest at the inauguration.
Winter Games Federation of India head SS Patwal said that with its limited resources the federation had sent an Indian skiing teams to the Olympics. Women athletes have been sent to foreign countries by the federation to participate in various international competitions. He said that the South Asian Federation Winter Games will also be held again at Auli in 2015. He expressed hope that the Government of India and Uttarakhand government would provide all necessary assistance for organising the SAF winter games here in 2015.
Teams from 14 States are participating in the competition inaugurated here on Friday with the Uttarakhand team eliciting hopes of the locals for winning performances. However, due to rain and snowfall on the inaugural day, no sporting events could be held on Friday which saw only the formal inauguration of the event. The competitive events are slated to begin from Saturday.