Ace sport climber ofJ&K, Shivani Charak once again held the J&K flag flying high by winningSilver medal in Speed Climbing and a Bronze medal in Lead Climbing in the Women’scategory of Uttarakhand Cup, a national ranking sport climbing competition,which concluded yesterday at Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi.

In a tough competition inLead climbing, the three international climbers, Pratiksha Arun of Bangaluru,Ritika Ravat of DelhI and Shivani Charak of J&K entered the final round bytopping the wall.

However, in the final,Shivani could reach 28th hold only against Pratiksha’s 32 and Ritika’s 29 andbagged the third place.

In Speed climbing final,against Shivpreet of Punjab, an international Speed climber, Shivani generatedgood speed and gave a good fight to Shivpreet but eventually lost the steamagainst former Asian Youth Champion and could win only a Silver medal. Forwinning a Silver and a bronze medal, Shivani was presented a cash prize ofRs.12000.

The competition wasorganized by Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF), New Delhi, the apex bodyfor mountaineering and sport climbing in the country, in association with NehruInstitute of

Mountaineering (NIM),Uttarkashi.

Now, Shivani Charak whohas the unique distinction of being the first ever and the only female athleteof J&K to participate in Asian Games is again likely to be among the IndianSport Climbing Team’s

probable for the nextyear’s Asian Games at Japan and has been training at Bengaluru for the lastover one month.

Meanwhile, Zorawar SinghJamwal, president; Sumit Khajuria, vice president and Shawetica Khajuria, generalsecretary of Mountaineering Association of J&K (MAJK) have congratulatedShivani for her yet another achievement in the Uttarakhand Cup and hoped thatshe would bring more laurels to J&K in the forthcoming internationalcompetitions. They promised all possible help to Shivani for her coaching andpractice at the international standard climbing walls in the country.

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