KATHMANDU, APRIL 1
Tribhuvan Army Club of Nepali Army is organizing the first CoAS International High Altitude Tri-Adventure Competition in Jomson, Mustang on May 21.
The event features three stages – 100m climbing, 4.75km trail running and 15.35km cycling – making it a total of 20.2km adventure circuit, informed the organisers at a press meet today. The NA had previously organized the event twice as a national competition and they have invited military teams from 10 nations to participate in an international-level tournament from this year.
According to Maj Rajiv Chand, a maximum of 25 teams will take part in the one-day event which will start at an altitude of 2,780m and reach up to 3,200m. "This is an open event for national players and teams, while we have invited 10 military teams from the international arena," said Chand. "We will organise a selection for national teams and the athletes will have to go through certain criteria as we have identified it as a high risk tournament," he added.
Each team will have two athletes and both of them need to complete all three stages. "If one athlete fails to complete any of the stages, the team will be disqualified," said Chand. He also said the timing of the athlete finishing second in the team will be recorded as the final time.
Top three teams will receive Rs 300,000, Rs 200,000 and Rs 100,000 respectively along with medals and certificates.
The organisers have also included women's category in the event and top three teams will get Rs 100,000, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively. "As we do not have enough women in adventure sports, we included the category to encourage women athletes and teams into the sports," he said. "We are preparing a couple of teams by providing necessary training to women athletes," said Chand.
The organisers will provide the international teams with six-day accommodation facilities in Jomsom to acclimatise with the local conditions, while the national teams will get three-day accommodation.
"If national or international teams want more time to acclimatise or prepare for the event, they will have to manage their stay on their own," said Chand.
Chief of Nepali Army Physical Training and Sports Centre, Col Munal Basnet said they were organising the event through an internal budget with the help of sponsors.
Lt Col Ujjwal KC was also present on the occasion.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 2, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
