Kawa wins Pahalgam MTB event

Abid Khan

Srinagar, Apr 11: Ghulam Rasool Kawa emerged winner in the first Pahalgam Mountain Terrain Biking (MTB) championship in Pahalgam on Saturday.
 15 highly trained cyclists from district Srinagar and Budgam participated in the event, which was first of its kind in Pahalgam. The race was held from Pahlagam to Madlan village and back with total distance of eight-kilometers.
 Ghulam Rasool Kawa finished first while Mudasir Beigh and Dar Juniad finished second and third respectively. Moid-ul-Hameed and Hashmat finished fourth and fifth respectively.
 In the initial phase of race, Mudasir and Dar Juniad were leading and the Kawa was way behind. But as the riders moved back from Madlan village after touching checkpoint, Kawa started to push paddle hard. Having experience of participating in some of toughest MTB international events of country Kawa managed it easily to leave behind rest of the riders and finished first with comfortable lead. 
 After that real competition was for second and third place between Mudasir and Junaid. Till finish line no one was able to judge who will reach first. In the end, Mudasir finished ahead of Juniad with a fraction of second and bagged second place while dar Juniad bagged third place. First three position holder were given cash prizes of Rs 1000, Rs 500 and Rs 300 respectively. 
 The event was held under the supervision of Abid Ahmad Shah.
 Giving details about the event and track, Abid said, “ It is first time that event was held in this picturesque valley which has ideal tracks for MTB cycling which is adventurous form of cycling. The track is best suited for any international MTB event.”
 “We allowed only top MTB cyclists to participate who had their own imported cycles. The reason behind allowing less number of participants was to minimize risk of any casualty,” he said.
 Expressing his happiness Kawa said,“ It is great to win the inaugural event. I hope that the event would be a made regular feature.”
 The event was organized by JK Tourism department in collaboration with J&K Cycling Association.

Published in Greater Kashmir on April 4 -2009 link http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=12_4_2009&ItemID=4&cat=4