The Uttarakhand skiing, snow-shoe race and snowboarding team secured third place by winning a total of 10 medals in various competitions held as part of the first Khelo India Winter Games held at Gulmarg from March 7 to 11.
The team members met chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and were earlier felicitated by the State’s Tourism secretary Dilip Jawalkar on Monday. Congratulating the players, the chief minister said that there is immense scope for winter games in the state. The State government is making all possible efforts to encourage sports. It should be mentioned here that the 16 member team from Uttarakhand won three gold medals, two silvers and five bronze medals. According to officials, this is the first time when any State has won 10 medals in the Khelo India competition.
The district magistrate of Chamoli Swati S Bhadauriya, her Almora counterpart Nitin Bhadauriya, team manager Vijendra Rawat and coach Ajay Bhatt were also present on the occasion. Earlier, the team members were felicitated by Jawalkar. Speaking on the occasion, Jawalkar said that the talented youth of Uttarakhand had brought fame to the state at the national level with their performance in Gulmarg. The Tourism department holds events at the state level to encourage adventure sports from time to time. Such events help the local youth become more skilled in these sports and then perform better at higher levels. Jawalkar further said that efforts will also be made to organise such events under Khelo India in Uttarakhand in the future.
Interacting with the team members, he said that in the future skiing and snowboarding competitions will be organised in a better manner at Auli so that the local youth can derive the maximum benefit. The players also shared their experiences with him on the occasion.
Among those who were felicitated on the occasion were Mahak Kwan who won the first position in slalom and giant slalom, Mansi Farswan who won the first and second positions in the slalom and giant slalom respectively in junior category and Amisha Chauhan who secure the third position in the senior slalom. Other team members felicitated on the occasion were Ayush Bhatt, Anju Bhujwan, Deepak Joshi, Ankit Kwan, Abhishek, Akshay Kwan, Vikesh Dimri, Rohit Negi, Ravindra Kandari and Mayank Dimri among others.