Hamirpur: Named Asian rafting tourney, but Kazakhstan lone international team

Dinesh Kanwar

Hamirpur, November 6

Despite all efforts to make the Asian Rafting Championship organised at Nadaun in the district an international event, only one foreign team from Kazakhstan participated in it.

Officials of the Indian Rafting Foundation had claimed earlier that teams from six countries had confirmed their participation. However, in a media briefing media on November 2, the Hamirpur Deputy Commissioner said that three international teams had confirmed their participation in the tournament. Surprisingly, no Indian team took part in the tourney that concluded last evening.

In the three-day tournament, 11 teams participated in the women’s category, eight in the mixed category, five in the open category and 13 teams took part in the men’s category. The Kazakhstan team participated in the tournament in the men, women and mixed categories.

Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri said at the closing function that three Asian teams from Kazakhstan, Nepal and Bhutan participated in the event. However, the fact is that no teams from Nepal and Bhutan took part in the tournament, as claimed by the state Tourism Development Corporation and the Indian Rafting Foundation.

The state government had provided a budget of Rs 70 lakh for the event that was organised in the home constituency of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu.

Shaukat Sikand, president of the TIRF, said that he could not comment on the poor participation of Asian countries in the tournament. Ravi Dhiman, District Tourism Officer, said that the department was only a supporting agency while the TIRF was looking after the participation of various teams.

Hemraj Bairwa, Deputy Commissioner, said that more international teams were expected to participate in the event. However, due to change in the schedule of the championship, the teams of some countries could not come.