First and only International cyclist of State Muhammad Akbar Khan of TCI Max has been awarded by GNDU cash prize of rupees 40,000 for winning two gold medals in the Inter-University Cycling championship.
GNDU has felicitated all its sports persons who won medals in All India Inter-University tournaments during 2016. GNDU is leading University in the sports across India and it has lifted prestigious MAKKA trophy 22 times.
Akbar will be again leading GNDU in the upcoming Inter-University competitions. He will represent GNDU in both road as well as track championships that are going to b held in Rajasthan and Kerala respectively.
Director TCI MAX Waseem Ahmad Tramboo has also hailed Akbar for the award.
Akbar is the first cyclist from J&K who started to win prizes on imported cycle. He finished on podium in Bangalore, Chandigarh and Madhya Pradesh.
Akbar is regarded as the torchbearer of cycling in Kashmir. From no imported cycle to around 15 imported cycles only in Narbal area only, the credit is being lavished on Akbar.
Seeing him excelling at National level youngsters of the valley have again joined cycling sport after having left it following some distracting elements creating hurdles.
“I am happy to see cycling again getting on track. Only in my area events are being held on regular basis while as events have also started to be held in Srinagar as well. Some distracting elements who have nothing to do with cycling have been creating rift among the cyclists recently and they were the real reason why cyclists were banned by Association some time back. We managed to shrug that off and now again the sport is back on track,” Akbar said.
“These are the same elements that held parallel federation event in Kashmir and players had to bear the brunt. Now the same persons have floated another parallel cycling association in Valley and we fear same thing may happen. I am trying to keep professionals riders away from the distractions but I can’t stop all. Riders need to understand difference between distracters and real persons,” he added.