Girnar Mountain Temples Climbing Competition News Saurashtra Gujarat India

State level Girnar climbing race on 3rd January 2010.

The annual state level Girnar climbing race will be held on 3rd January.

The competition this year has attracted 1496 applications for participation from 18 districts of the state. Of this 1022 applications are from Junagadh districts.

Due to increased distance of race, this year, the competition has received 299 lesser applications compare to last year.

The Mount Girnar is tallest peak of Gujarat. Every year state level and national level competitions are held here. The participants run on steps that are well constructed on the hill to reach atop.

Junagadh News – Girnar Mount Climbing Contest

Girnar - Junagadh (Saurastra) climbing contest turns tougher.

The decision to push the starting point of national Girnar Mount Climbing Contest, to be held on February 1 here, by 200 metres at Girnar Darwaja has not gone down well with participants.

Representations were made recently to the district sports officer to revert to the original starting point.

Climbers are not happy as the stretch has been increased by 400 m (200 m both ways). Earlier, the stretch was 145-m-long. Now, it will be 345 m, almost three times.

About 226 participants from 16 states are gearing up for the event. For men, it is 5,000 steps and for women 2,200. The first national meet was held in last April, but this year it has been scheduled for February. So far, 27 state contests have been held, but this is the second national-level event.

Junagadh District Collectorate sources said, all arrangements are being made for the climbing contest. "A notable entry is that of an NRG from Canada, Gendis Patel, 29, who is representing Maharashtra at this event," said an official.

Junagadh News - Girnar Mountaineering Competition 2010

A total of 1,795 entries have been received from 16 districts across the state for the State-Level Girnar Mountaineering Competition to be held on January 4 next year.

It is to be followed by the national-level Girnar Mountaineering Competition on February 1.

The competition, which is organized every year by the state’s Youth, Sports and Cultural department, has support of the Junagadh(Saurastra) district administration, which is now pooling in its resources to remove the last-minute glitches, if any.

Out of a total 1,795 entries received so far, majority have come in from Junagadh (1,365), followed by Rajkot (161), Jamnagar (81), Amreli (67), Porbandar (28), Gandhinagar (24), Kutch (16), Surendranagar and Dahod (14 each), Valsad (9), Sabarkantha (6), Panchmahals (5), Bhavnagar (2), and one entry each from Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Kheda districts.

Dev Kumar Aambaliya, coordinator of the competition and deputy mamalatdar with the state Revenue department, said: “Out of the total entries received so far, 1,448 are under the men’s category, and the remaining 347 in the women’s category.”

He also said that a record of 55.33 minutes had been established in the men’s group in last year’s competition, which involved a total of 4,862 steps.

The women’s group on the other hand had set a record of 35.15 minutes last year in which they had to take a total of 2,200 steps.

“We are trying for a live telecast and have also conducted a survey in this regard. The competition is mainly aimed at providing thrill and adventure to the youth along with giving them a national-level exposure,” he added.

Aambaliya further said that the Girnar Mount Climbing Competition is unique in its own way with no such competition being organised anywhere else across the country.