December 29
Firdous Qadri
Two players of J&K Gate ball Union, Ahsan Ali and Zahid Hussain both hailing from Srinagar, Kashmir showed tremendous performance at the Indian Open Gateball Tournament 2018, Bhubaneswar Odisha which was organised by Indian Open Gateball Union.
The tournament saw more than 13 teams participating, four of them were foreigners.
The Jammu Kashmir Gateball Union played in the doubles category played three matches against Tripura, Taiwan & Assam. Both the players were honoured with Award of Appreciation.
Ahsan Ali and Zahid Hussain both are working as Sports Educators at The Legends School of Education and Kashmir Harvard School and promoting sports from grassroot level.
When asked about the game, Ahsan Ali (Secretary, J&K Gateball Union) told The Kashmiriyat that this game is very unique and familiar to golf but played with mental sharpness. “There is no age bar nor gender in the game. Even we saw 85 year old lady from Indonesia team,” Ahsan Ali said.
He told The Kashmiriyat that now they will start coaching camps of the said game from March onwards and by the month of May they are expecting two International Coaches to train the youth so that players can perform more better in the coming events