The Arya Samaj Bhawan of BHEl was sounding with uncommon words Hafang, Hofung on Sunday morning where usually Vedic mantras are echoing.
Boys and girls of different age groups had gathered along with their parents and guides to participate in the district level championship organised by district Wushu Association of Haridwar.
Instead of Vedic chantings, the hall reverberated with words like fight, attack, defend.
The championship started with stone breaking demonstration by senior students in which they break 10 marble tiles placed one over the other with one blow of a hand.
This Chinese martial Arts Wushu is an excellent combination of kick, punch and throw used in boxing and wrestling.
The State secretary of Wushu Association Arti Saini told the Pioneer, “This is the first championship of the year 2016 for sub-junior, junior and senior level contest. Sub junior contest is held for students aged between from 4 to 14, between 14 to 16 come junior and 16 onwards are senior level students from across the district.Once selected they will compete for State and national level Wushu championships.”
Presiding over the inaugural function as chief guest, legislator from Ranipur Adesh Chauhan said, “It is pathetic that the Government is not giving the amount of support which the players must get. In comparison to other States like Haryana which had sent a team of 20 players out of 125 for Rio Olympics, Uttarakhand has not made its mark.”
He also said that parents must come forward to infuse the spirit of sports in children and let them pursue it as profession if the child has the caliber.
It is unfortunate that children are so much pressurised with academic syllabus that they hardly get time to do sports.
At the closing ceremony, president of Asha foundation J P Agarwal awarded the winners. In 20 kg boys category Darshil won gold medal and in 60 kg Nitin bagged the gold medal.
In girls group Rakshika won gold, Sajiya silver and Muskan bronze.