Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF), is all set to organise ‘Tata Steel Sport Climbing Championship 2019, a three-day open competition for young climbers between the age group of 6 and 16 that will be held in Jamshedpur at the JRD Sports Complex on December 21-23.
TSAF plans to make this championship the flagship annual climbing event
in India that will introduce this new and emerging international sporting event to the Indian youth and help identify and groom potential talent to represent India in the 2024 Olympics.
This annual sporting event will also be a new platform to involve the community at large and facilitate a wide adoption of climbing in India and create a network of institutions and stakeholders to increase the reach of the sport.
The ‘Tata Steel Sport Climbing Championship 2019’ will be held under three age groups i.e. 6-9 years, 10-13 years and 14-16 years and host a speed relay for both men and women.
Around 120 participants including the current national champions have already registered for this competition.
Chanakya Chaudhary, vice president, corporate services, Tata Steel, said, “Tata Steel has been a major benefactor of sports in India. Climbing, though a very popular sport internationally, it is now fast emerging as a popular sport in India.
The ‘Tata Steel Sport Climbing Championship 2019’ is specifically designed to give an impetus to this sport in the country. TSAF is very well positioned to create a platform to grow this sport in the coming years to an international level.”
Conveying his best wishes to all participants and the organisers for this exciting event, he added: “It is heartening to see that youngsters groomed at TSAF are already making a mark in international competitions.”
Climbing is now an Olympics event and has been included in Tokyo Olympics 2020 for the first time. Climbing is now becoming an urban sport and is getting popular with schools and even defence forces setting-up climbing walls.
More than 25 million people in the world regularly try climbing as a sport. Tokyo, Germany and France have more than 500 climbing gyms while India alone has around 100 good climbing walls accessible to kids and the general public.
The Tata Group through TSAF and Tata Trusts has been a pioneer in developing sport climbing in India. The first wall at Indian Mountaineering Foundation was sponsored by Tata Steel in 1994 and named as ‘JRD Tata Wall’.
The two climbing world cups, hosted in India, were organised by a private club and sponsored by Tata Trusts.
The Tata Steel Adventure Foundation Climbing Centre was set up in 2014 and has since developed into one of the best available facilities in India to promote the sport and nurture young talent. TSAF has also been supporting many under-privileged children by providing training, nutrition, lodging and education.