On World Snow Day, major SnowShoe event held in Srinagar

Srinagar, January 17: Celebrating World Snow Day with rest of the World, J&K SnowShoe Association held major SnowShoe event at SP College Ground Srinagar on Sunday, January 17.

The event was organised under the auspices of SnowShoe Federation of India with support from Directorate of Tourism , Kashmir.

The event was organised with the aim to celebrate World Snow Day on January 17 with rest of the World and hold major Winter Sports activity in Srinagar City.

This season Srinagar city recieved lot of snowfall and it gave Association a golden chance to celebrate Snow Day in city and also hold major Winter Sports activity.

The event titled Srinagar SnowShoe run saw around 70 athletes from various parts of Kashmir turning up for participation.

The competitions were held in Sub-Junior, Junior and Senior categories.

The event was flagged off by Director Handloom and Handicrafts Kashmir Mahmood Ahmad Shah in presence of International Water Sports Coach Bilquis Mir, Director Physical Education Islamia College Dr Altaf ur Rehman, SnowShoe Federation of India official Mushtaq Bashir, J&K SnowShoe Association official Gulzar Khan and organising secretary Muzamil Mir.

In senior category, Mohammad Adil Khan finished first while as Villayat Hussain and Aasif Ali finished second and third respectively.

In junior Under-19 category, Shahnawaz finished first while as Aijaz Ahmed and Shahid Shafi Bhat finished second and third respectively.

The major attraction of event was participation of Sub-Junior category in which local kids who had come to play cricket at SP College ground participated.

They requested organisers to allow them to compete as they were disappointed to see ground being under the blanket of snow, thus missing their cricket.

In that category, Aabid Rashid finished first while as Aqib Bashir and Ubaid Altaf finished second and third respectively.

Mahmood Shah who was chief guest on the occasion distributed prizes amoung the winners in presence of Mir Bilquis, Dr. Altaf ur Rehman and Mushtaq Bashir.

“It is great to see a major winter sports activity being held in city centre of Srinagar. This year Srinagar recieved lot of snowfall and SnowShoe is the activity that can held anywhere where their is snow. I am happy to see these kids enjoying taking part in such events,” said Mahmood Shah who is also known adventurer of Kashmir.

“We need to encourage these kids to take part in such activities even during winter months. I asked one of the kid what he is doing here, he said he had come to play cricket but due to snow couldn’t do that and then decided to participate in the SnowShoe event being held. It is encouraging and we should encourage them in order to see our future generation excelling in sports events,” he added .

Mushtaq Bashir, a too official of SnowShoe Federation of India said that it is around fourth SnowShoe event held in Srinagar city.

“This year we are celebrating snowfall of Srinagar. It is fourth SnowShoe event organised in Srinagar this year only. However, today’s one is major one as it is suported by Tourism department that provided equipment which encouraged us to involve more participants,” Bashir said.

“Today’s event coincided with World Snow Day and we wanted to make it memorable. Now we are shifting our focus towards upcoming 2nd Khelo India National Winter Games that are going to be held in Gulmarg.We are going to hold open selection trials for J&K players in Gulmarg before Khelo India event,” said organising secretary Muzamil Hussain.