New Delhi, Jan 24 (IANS) The Fifth National Winter Games will be hosted in snow-covered Gulmarg, a ski resort in Kashmir Valley that is fast emerging as a global winter tourism destination.
About 500 participants in 17 teams, including Jammu and Kashmir, are expected to participate in the event, the success of which will also make stronger the state’s bid for hosting the winter events of the Commonwealth Games, which New Delhi is hosting in 2010.
Officials from the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department said here Thursday that the games would be held from Feb 18 to 22.
“The event will bolster Gulmarg’s reckoning at the international level and will strengthen our claim for hosting the winter chapter of the 2010 Commonwealth Games,” said Naeem Akhtar, secretary tourism department Kashmir.
The torch of the 5th National Winter Games will be taken from Delhi Feb 12 and travel through Dehradun, Shimla, Jammu and Srinagar before reaching Gulmarg on Feb 17.
The teams participating in the event include Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, New Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, GMVN, WHMI (Manali), BSF, Navy, Army Sports Control Board and IIS&M (Gulmarg).
The events to be held during the sports carnival include slalom, giant slalom and snowboard in alpine skiing, freestyle (men and women) in cross-country and figure skating and speed skating (men and women) and ice hockey for men in skating rink category.