4th National Ice Hockey Championship concludes at Leh

Leh, Jan 29: Highlighting the vast potential of the winter sports in the state, the chief minister, Omar Abdullah, Thursday said the government would initiate steps to give fillip to winter sports in Ladakh adding that it envisages strengthening sports infrastructure to showcase the winter sports on the international canvass. 

 Speaking at the award function of the 4th National Ice Hockey Championship at Leh, the chief minister said that J&K was an ideal locale for winter and adventurous sports related activities which needs to be packaged along with tourism promotion schemes. 

 He said that the ideal locations where winter sports could be propagated in a big way would be explored adding that these would be equipped with state-of-art sports infrastructure meeting international standards. This, he said would increase employment opportunities for the youth besides, opening avenues for sportsmen and sports lovers.

 The chief minister was enthralled to witness the nail-biting finals played between Ladakh scouts and JK Blue teams in which Ladakh scouts beat JK Blue. In all seven Ice Hockey teams including one from Kargil, participated in the championship which began on January 22.

 He gave trophy to the winning team and various participants and announced Rs. 30,000 for the winning team and Rs 20,000 for JK blues, the runner up team.

 Amidst strong crowd of sports lovers, Omar said that government would help in the development of modern Ice Hockey Stadium at Leh besides initiating measures to increase winter sports activities in the region. 

 Speaking on the occasion, minister for Tourism and Culture, Nawang Rigzin Jora thanked the chief minister for showing his concern for the development of Ladakh region. 

 He said that tourism potential of Ladakh and other regions of the state would be effectively tapped to attract national and international tourists. 
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