Srinagar, Oct 13: Wath Haawuk an NGO organised an athletic meet titled Kashmir Grand Prix on Saturday 10th October, which featured many athletes and numerous events. The meet took at place at Gindun Ground, Rajbagh Srinagar.
The athletic meet featured different events for men and women genre.
The day started off with Men’s 1500m race which was won by Gulbadan Hikmatyar, while Umer Hamid and Sajad Hussain came 2nd and 3rd respectively. The enthusiasm of the athletes in the first race set the tone for rest of the day.
It was followed by Men’s 100m event for which three qualifying rounds took place. In the final Adil Sher occupied the pole position, Danish Dar came 2nd and Mohd Adil Khan ended up in the 3rd spot.
At the end of the first hour and half female athletes took centre stage and competed in the 200m race which was won by Nadiya Nighat and was joined by Sameera Hamid in 2nd and Zeenat in 3rd spot.
Soon after this Women 800m began which was a competitive affair and Zobiya Tariq claimed the first position and Muskaan Shabaan finished just short in 2nd place.
Next up was the Men’s 400m race. In a closely fought contest Suhail Nisar clocked in the fastest to bag the top position, while a mere few seconds separated runner ups Parvaiz Ahmed Wani(2nd) and Danish Ahmed Dar(3rd).
The athletic meet took a brief pause and resumed proceedings in the afternoon with the U-14 children events. All the children were amped up and enthusiastically waiting for their moment to shine. They brought a renewed vigour and energy to the ocassion.
In the girls 100m race, Eshal impressed with a top place finish, Irfa Zehra came second and Hadiqa ended up being 3rd.
The boys 100m race in children was a much exciting affair and saw Asif Ali run away with the first spot, Abeer Rouf and Hamzah grabbed 2nd and 3rd positions respectively.
The parents of the children also appreciated such an initiative and looked forward for more such activities for their children on a regular basis.
It got down to the final two events and first up was Women’s 100m final. Once again Nadiya Nighat proved to be good enough for her to claim her second gold of the day. While Sameera followed her first silver with another one in this race. Sheeraza came 3rd in a close race.
The final event of the day took place in Men’s 5000m category. All the athletes were well equipped and conditioned for this long run. This proved to be one of the exciting races of the day. And after a lengthy run, Gulbadan Hikhmatyar claimed gold after an impressive performance. Gulbadan was ran close by Umer, who ended up with a silver medal. Rounding off the top three was Mir Riyaz, claiming bronze.
All the participants. of the children category were awarded medals to encourage them further in their endeavours. In the junior category Zaeem Hussain Bazaz, Mirza Mohammad Kazim and Murtaza Hussain participated all of whom were 4 years of age or less which was a commendable thing.
As the event drew to a conclusion, Muzamil Hussain Mir, senior Kashmir athlete said, ” To get this event going we all had to make great efforts including the athletes, we are at the begining of what could prove to be a decisive day in athletics history of Kashmir and for that we are willing to work hard and carry our aim of lifting this sport to the next level”.
This event marked one of the best turn over athlete wise in the valley. In all 60 participated in the men and women events, most notably there were two participants from Kargil. The junior category also attracted a good number of young runners with the total of 22 participants.
Wath Haawuk founder Hilal Ahmed was thankful to all those who appeared for the event.” This event ticked an important box for us, which was to show that athletics still carries a broad scope and with the right management it can be a fantastic platform for our athletes. Our vision and idea for the sport was matched by the enthusiasm shown by all the competitors, who toiled hard”, he was quoted as saying. He further expressed his gratitude to the volunteers on the ground who took an active part in running the event under the watchful eye of Mir Tahir, he said, ” I would like to thank the volunteers, Shakir Shah, Adil Farooq and Muzamil Farooq all of whom were involved with the arrangements of the event and ensured a smooth, well organized athletic meet by their work ethic and commitment to the cause. Hopefully this is the first step in our efforts to restore athletics as a prime sport in Kashmir and we have plans to organise more such events going forward”.