PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, July 19: Tata Steel Adventure Foundation in association with Indian Mountaineering Federation’s East Zone is organising the 24th IMF East Zone Sport Climbing Championship in the steel city. The three-day event will continue till July 20.
Over 220 participants from Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Sikkim are taking part in the event organised at the JRD Tata Sports Complex.
The climbers have been categorised based on age into sub-junior, junior and open categories for both men and women.
The medal winners will directly qualify to represent the zone in the IMF National Climbing Championship to be held from August 12-14, 2022 at Uttarkashi.
TSAF’s newly constructed climbing walls meet the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC)’s international standards and will be the battleground for lead and speed climbing events.
The bouldering events will take place on the indoor boulders. With a total of two speed climbing walls, 2 lead climbing walls, 10 boulders and numerous routes, the TSAF Sport Climbing Centre has one of the best infrastructures in India.
For TSAF, this is one of many competitions that it will host. With the construction of new walls of IFSC standards, TSAF is gearing up for international competitions as well. Our grassroot athletes are also ready to take part in these events. TSAF is playing an instrumental role in the development of sports climbing in the country.
More than 150 kids from ‘Masti ki Paathshaala,’ a grassroot community development centre (supported by Tata Steel Foundation) in and around Jamshedpur have practised day and night to win laurels. TSAF trains kids at 7 grassroot centres within a radius of 10 km from Jamshedpur. Tumung, Pipla, Dimna, Rajnagar, Tinplate, Bagunhatu and Parsudih are currently the training grounds with more upcoming centres in and around a radius of 50 km of Jamshedpur.
More than 500 climbers train in these centres every day under the guidance of able instructors. The best candidates have been selected for this championship based on weekly and monthly competitions held there. TSAF recently signed an MoU with JCAPCPL to nurture the budding athletes of the TSAF Sport Climbing Academy, develop the grass-root centres, enable foreign exposure and install modular climbing walls at feeder centres.
The 12 athletes from the TSAF Sport Climbing Academy have their eyes set on the podium.
“IMF East Zone Committee has started a campaign – ‘Catch them young in sport climbing’ which has been included in Olympics and Asian Games. So, it is very heartening to see so many children participate in this championship. From IMF and East Zone, we are grateful to TSAF for organizing this mega event”, said Manik Bannerjee, chairman – IMF East Zone Committee.
