Week-long snow festival concludes at Gulmarg

Gulmarg, Dec 31 (UNI) A week-long snow festival at the world famous tourist resort of Gulmarg in Kashmir has come to an end.

The festival, orgainsed by the Tourism Department, witnessed several sporting events in both boys' and girls' categories.

The seven-day festival had commenced on December 25 with the snow cycling event in which Shakeel Ahmad bagged first position while Muzaffar Ahmad and Riyaz Ahmad finished runners-up.

The cycling event was followed by snow scooter and sledge races.

In the sledge race, Mohammad Subhan bagged the first position while second and third places went to Ghulam Mohammad and Abdul Khaliq respectively.

In the snow scooter event, the first, second and third positions were separated by a fraction of a second. While Mehrajudin bagged the first position, Gul Mustafa finished second and Abdul Aziz Dar bagged the third prize.

The 14 km Down Hill MTB race from Gulmarg to Tangmarg was won by Riyaz Ahmad Wani while Muzamil Mehraj and Tariq Ahmad Khan bagged second and third positions respectively.

The boys' race was won by Shuhaib Tariq while Fayaz Ahmad and Showkat secured second and third places respectively.

Bushra Khan won Gold in slalom girls' race while Ishrat Majeed and Amina Afzal bagged second and third positions respectively.

About 100 participants took part in the cross-country skiing, the last event of the festival. The event was won by Tashi Landuk of Ladakh while Tashi Garson and Zakir Hussain finished second and third respectively.

The star attraction of the event was Moonlight Gondola Ride, which was held for the first time. The demonstration of ice-skating was also held under floodlights.

UNI