Jahengeer Ganie
March 30
A visually impaired climber village boy has won laurels by making it to semi finals in first ever Indian Mountaineering Foundation national sport climbing championship.
Mohammad Ashraf Sofi, 26, son of Manzoor Ahmad Sofi, a resident of Trich village of South Kashmir’s Pulwama district succeeded in wining hearts of people of area as he made it to semi-finals in two day climbing championship in his first attempt.
Ashraf finished at 10th position among 40 participants which is encouraging as at first he was very hesitant to participate, his coach, Syed Abdul Mohsin Andrabi, a trained mountaineer told The Kashmiriyat.
He added that although he failed to qualify for finals but his maiden attempt with only two days practice has brought a good hope in his mindset.
The two days sports event was organized by the Mountaineering Association of J&K at Sprawling Buds School and was thrown open on 27 March.
Though, Ashraf couldn’t qualify for finals but his good performance with little training, and no exposure won applause from many at the event.
Locals while speaking to The Kashmiriyat said that we feel proud adding that the way this visually impaired boy performed must be appreciated.
We hope that in future he will be trained properly so that he can perform better in coming events, locals added.