First ever Sports Climbing ends successfully

Kolkata, Apr 1 (UNI) The first ever East Zone Sports Climbing training, sponsored by Indian Mountaineering Foundation(IMF), ended successfully at 17.5 mts high artificial wall at Salt Lake here last night.

Altogether 163 trainees, aged between 14 to 25, including 31 girls from Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar and different districts of West Bengal participated in the five-day training in two phases from March 27, according to chief instructor Ujjal Ganguly.

IMF, the supreme mountaineering body of the country, for the first time sponsored such trainings in different zones of East, West, North, South and Northeast states, in association with different state governments, to promote adventure sports among the youth of the country.

Sports Climbing, a popular sport in the western countries, is gradullay gaining momentum in some parts of India.

The 17.5 mts artificial wall, just outside Yuba Bharati Krinangan at Salt lake, was erected on an iron cage covered with plywoods with pasted lacquer and sands to give coarseness. It looked like a rock wall and was a fitting ambience for the sports climbing.

IMF had been organsing sports climbing competitions for some years in different parts of the country but due to shortage of competitors the sports climbing training has been launched from this year, said Ganguly, a veteran mountaineer.

UNI