Jamil Messanger of Great Britain bagged first position in the men's category of the Paragliding Pre-World Cup Championships at Bir in Kangra district today while Poland's Klaudia Bulga Kow emerged winner in the women's section.
Besides a gold medal and a trophy, the first prize in men's category carried a cash award of Rs 2.5 lakh while the amount of cash prize in women section was Rs 75,000.
In the Indian category, Ajay Kumar Sharma was adjudged winner and was given a cash prize of Rs 1.10 lakh while the new talent prize was bagged by Kamal Kishore.
In the Sports Class category, Jim Mallinson of UK won cash award of Rs 75,000 and a trophy.
Presiding over the closing ceremony of the week long event, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said that the state government was making efforts to promote adventure sports in a big way and announced a grant of Rs 10 lakh for Bir Billing Paragliding Association.
The CM said that Billing was a world famous site where paragliders from all over the world come to experience the beauty of the valley as well as paragliding.
As many as 107 pilots including 12 women pilots from all over the country and 25 foreign countries participated in the event.
He hoped that the event would continue in the same spirit in future and would attract more participants from abroad.
Singh assured that the matter regarding setting up of National Institute of Paragliding and Adventure Sports at Bir would be taken up with Government of India.
He said that the efforts would be made to acquire suitable land to develop an 18-hole golf course at Bir to make it an all weather sports destination.
