Jamshedpur, Nov. 15: A 26 member team from (TSAF Sport Climbing Training Centre) Jharkhand led by the Centre�s Instructor Bibhas Roy participated in the 22nd East Zone Sport Climbing Competition held at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute Darjeeling. This was the largest ever team from Jharkhand.
Jharkhand�s first Sport Climbing Wall was put up by Tata Steel in the JRD Tata Sports Complex in 2008. Over the years it has seen three East Zone Sport Climbing Competitions organized on it and several training camps to groom the youth of the State.
In time some good climbers made it through to the zonals and played at Nationals. Talim Ansari became the 1st boy from Jharkhand to grab silver medal at the National Sport Climbing Championship in 2015.
Today TSAF�s (Tata Steel Adventure Foundation) Sport Climbing Training Centre can boast of over 25 children who are passionate about Sport Climbing and come everyday to train. Their entire coaching and equipment expenses are taken care of by TSAF. This year Taslim Ansari, was selected to represent India at the Asian Youth Sport Climbing championship held in Tehran.
In the just concluded 22nd East Zone Climbing Competition at HMI Darjeeling, a record 17 climbers from Jamshedpur won prizes and would be eligible to participate in the Nationals in December �16 in Bangalore. In all 9 boys and 8 girls won the prizes in various categories.
Jamshedpur has set yet another standard in the relatively new event of Sport Climbing. In 2020 this would be included as an Olympic Event and TSAFs effort would be to prepare youth to come up to that level through its Training Centre.
