Jammu & Kashmir Tourism Department in collaboration with Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) to conduct 1st IMF All India Sport Lead Climbing Competition from June 24 to June 25, 2018 at climbing wall, Nowgam, Srinagar.Over 100 professional climbers besides judges and other officials from across the country are participating in the competition.President IMF - Col HS Chauhan will inaugurate the mega event at 9 am on Sunday in presence of Secretary Tourism Rigzian Sampheal and Director Tourism Kashmir Mahmood A Shah.The event will be held in sub-junior, junior, men and women categories. Giving details about the event, President IMF Col Chauhan said that climbing sport is now an Olympic game, which will be introduced in 2020 Olympics to be held in Tokyo besides the Asian games, which will be held in August 2018 in Indonesia. “We have talented players across the country who can prove their mettle in Asian games and in Olympics also. Such national events help us find the talented climbers,” he said. Chauhan said three events in Speed, Bouldering and Lead are held in the championships. “We have conducted national championships in Speed and Bouldering in other parts of the country and in Srinagar we are conducing competitions in Lead Climbing from Sunday. All the three events will be held in Asian games and also in Olympics for which we have to train our boys through such competitions,” he said.
All the seven zones of IMF including East zone featuring 12 climbers, West Zone with 28 climbers, North Zone with 39 climbers, South Zone with 4 climbers, North East Zone with 10 climbers and Services Zone with 6 climbers and Police Zone having 5 climbers are participating in the competitions. Judges, trainers, route tellers and other officials from other states have also arrived in Srinagar to make the competitions a success. Director tourism Kashmir said the department has been training local boys and girls every year for sport climbing for such competitions. “We have trained local boys and girls who were imparted skills in sport climbing for past few years. The best among them were given fresh training for past three days who will be participating in this national championship,” said Director Tourism Kashmir. He said this championship will go a long with in promoting sport climbing in the state and previous year the department trained over 300 youth and also organized inter-district championships. “We have created facility and we want to utilize it to maximum. Local youth have shown good response who can make career in this sports. We will organise more such events and competitions in future” said Shah.