Srinagar: The Winter Games Association of J&K held its Annual General Meeting at SKICC on Saturday in which maximum individual, institutional and district association members took part. In order to watch the deliberations and hold election process smoothly the J&K State Sports Council had deputed Prof Bashir Ahmad Shah as its Observer, while ColVivekJalla of High Altitude Warfare School was another Observer. Farooq Ahmad Shah former President of the association reached late as his flight was late.
In his address Shah informed that the WGAJK has performed exceptionally well during his 10 year long tenure.
He informed that the association produced many ace skiers who took part in different international level championships in different countries.
He highly appreciated the budding alpine skier Arif Khan, who performed excellent in last World Ski Championship held in USA and qualified for final run for the first time. He said that the association organized several National Alpine Skiing, Nordic Skiing and Snowboarding Championships and won many medals at different age groups. He conveyed his thanks to State Sports Council for sanctioning suitable funds for holding different domestic programs this year. He also informed that the association is all set to introduce snow kayaking in winter. He said snow kayaking is a newly introduced snow sport and could help to attract tourists to pursue this sport here for which we have natural facilities available in Kashmir. He also informed the meeting that WGAJK is setting up an academy to promote snow sports at grass root level. The Association has already submitted the DPR to Sports Council and hoped it will be cleared soon.
On the occasion the international alpine skier Arif Khan was felicitated and was presented the award for his excellent achievements. Notably Arif is selected to represent India in the forthcoming Asian Winter Games to be held in Japan in February 2017. Arif is an ace alpine skier of the state who has won scores of medals at national levels and has participated in several international ski championships including some FIS races at different ski resort in the world. Arif has been skiing aggressively since his childhood.
Later the election was held and a prominent skier of his time, Mohammad AbbasWani was elected as President. Muhammad Yusuf was elected as General Secretary, who has been former adventure sports coach in the University of Kashmir.
Hafiza Hassan, who has participated in first Asian Winter Games;Sr Vice President, Abdul Rahman Dar, former Youth services and sports officer; Haji GM Dar and Mir Zahoor Ahmad as Vice Presidents; while as Kishen Chand, GM Parray and Haji Mohamad Amin Zanaskari as joint Secretaries for Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh regions respectively.
Finally the newly elected President Abbas presented a memento to Farooq Ahmad Shah for his contribution to the development of winter sports and running the association smoothly for one decade. An Award of Appreciation was also presented to Arif Khan for his exceptional performance in the international championships.