Kishtwar : As part of the Kishtwar Youth Festival under the Mission Youth initiative, District Administration Kishtwar is hosting sports hunt activities to identify and groom sports talent. On the third day of the festival, a marathon was organised at the district headquarter with about 400 participants.
The marathon was conducted by the Sports Department under the guidance of District Youth Services and Sports Officer, Kharati Lal Sharma and flagged off by Chief Guest, Deputy Commissioner, Dr Devansh Yadav in the presence of DySP Zai-Ul-Haq.
The 8 km marathon followed a route along the Kishtwar-Paddar National Highway before culminating at Airport end of Chowgan ground. Ravi Dass from Udhampur was the winner of the marathon, completing it in 18 minutes and 18 seconds, while Ritik Sharma from Kathua and Akshey Sharma from Udhampur were runners-up.
Among girls, Supriya Shan, Priya Rani, Anisa, Anjali and Kum Kum Parihar were among 200 participants who completed.The chief guest awarded cash prizes of Rs 20 thousand to winner Ravi Dass, Rs 10 thousand to first runner-up Ritik Sharma and Rs 5 thousand to second runner-up Akshey Sharma.
DC Kishtwar encouraged girl participants and school children who completed the marathon successfully. He emphasised the importance of sports for mental and physical fitness and advised students to stay away from drugs.
A two-day cricket trial and coaching session under mentorship of J&K Ranji team members Akash Choudhary, Sunny Verma and Shubham Khajuria concluded with over 50 young cricketers identified as having significant potential. The DC informed that some will be sponsored for formal cricket coaching in academies by District Administration Kishtwar.