MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Winter Sports Association (AJKWSA) and the AJK Sports Department are hosting the 2023 National Women Winter Sports Championship (Saadia Khan Cup) and 3rd Ganga Choti Winter Sports Festival from Feb 7 (today), an organiser said on Monday.

“This is the first time Azad Kashmir is holding a women’s winter sports national championship wherein more than 80 female athletes will contest for the Saadia Khan Cup,” Raja Aqeel Khurshid, secretary general of the AJKWSA, told Dawn

The female athletes will represent eight teams from AJK, Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), Pakistan Air Force and Adventure Foundation Pakistan, he said.

Mr Khurshid said that more than 40 male athletes from different regional clubs of AJK, Punjab, KP, GB, and ICT would separately compete in the 3rd Ganga Choti Winter Sports event, he said.

Ganga Choti lies at an altitude of 9,990 feet in AJK’s Bagh district, 7 kilometres ahead of the 7,000 feet high tourist resort of Sudhan Gali.

The athletes, Mr Khurshid said, would contest for medals in Slalom and Giant Slalom categories in Alpine Skiing and Giant Slalom and Parallel Giant Slalom in Snowboarding.

He said AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilays was most likely to be the chief guest at the closing ceremony of the event on Feb 12.

Athletes would demonstrate their skiing and snowboarding skills before the distribution of medals and other awards to the winners at the closing ceremony, where local artists would also perform at a Kashmiri cultural show, he added.

The sporting event, Mr Khurshid said, was part of the AJK winter sports calendar, whereby Alpine Skiing training camps for the local youth were held between Jan 28 and Feb 6 at the 9,500 feet high Pir Chinasi, 9,000 feet high Toli Pir and 7,000 feet high Sudhan Gali, on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot and Bagh, respectively.

He said the 5th Arang Kel Championship had been scheduled for mid-March this year.

He maintained that the winter and ice sports activities and competitions had become a regular activity in AJK since 2019 after the AJKWSA had held the first-ever winter sports event in the territory at 8,379 feet high Arang Kel in Neelum valley.

According to him, AJK had been naturally blessed with the best slopes and spots -technically suitable for Alpine Skiing and Ice Sports - which were hardly three to four-hour drive from Islamabad, thus making the territory an attractive destination for snow and ice sport lovers and sightseers.

However, he said, development of a reasonable infrastructure and facilities as well as a comprehensive and realistic policy with clear and rational short-term and long-term goals was a must on the part of the AJK government to achieve this goal.

He said he had recently called on the AJK premier who had assured him of his support in installing chairlifts and construction of ice rinks at four locations to promote winter sports.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2023