Kathmandu, Nov 25: The "War Horse" Nepal Pokhara International Himalaya Cross-Country Race Competition has successfully been started today(Saturday) morning at 7:30 am. This event was jointly organised by the the Pokhara Municipal Government of Nepal, Chinese Embassy in Nepal and Nepal Tourism Board.
The aim of the event is to promote the love of sports and eco-friendly travel and to strengthen friendly exchanges between the people of China and Nepal.
Interestingly, the same race is being organised at the same hour in China as well. As the meeting between Chinese Ambassador to Nepal and Nepalese Ambassador to China finalized to start the competition at the same time in both countries. The Chinese Ambassador to Nepal, Chen Song and Nepalese Ambassador to China, Bishnu Kumar Shrestha joined the meeting through Wechat app on stage.
Types of Competition
The day long program had multiple events. There were 3 types of Competitions organised at the same day. The first competition of 40 km was a group competition. The players need to start their race from Barahighat, from Davidsfall, Kuvindey Bhanjhyang, Santi Stupa, Raniban and ending back at Barahighat to complete the whole race.
The second one race was of 38 km named "Love Run" for commoners and third was of 5 km for students.
Participant groups
The 40 km run was participated with 20 groups with each group having two men and a women. The group completed total 40 kilometres of adventurous race including running, cycling and boating.
In the similar way, the 38 km race had total 140 participants including both Chinese and Nepalese competitors. They had the time limit of 9 hour.
The third competition had total 400 participants of pokhara students who had to cover 5 Kilometres within 1hr of time limit.
The event had managed 7 checkpoints for competitors on their route. Medical facilities were also arranged there for the players, as required. Water and juice were provided for the players, while food stalls and photo exhibitions were organized for the spectators and others. Also, most importantly, entertainment for the spectators and a welcome cultural program for the tired athletes was also arranged. Not only locals but also foreign visitors enjoyed the cultural program.
Donations
The QR Code was placed in the event which when scanned would help make donations to the recently earthquake suffered areas of Nepal. Chinese Ambassador to Nepal His Excellency, Mr. Chen Song initiated with the QR scan to make donations. Not only other Chinese and Nepalese officials made their contributions but the organiser group also donated some sum to the victims of affected area.
China CAMC Engineering Co. Ltd., Yunnan Mountaineering and Outdoor Sports Association along with Overseas Chinese Association of Pokhara donated one lakh each.
China has always been helpful to Nepal at the difficult hours it goes through.
The winning team
The group of the winning team speaking about their training said, "though we wanted to, we three as a group couldn't practice together specifically for this particular game due to short notice but recently all of us were competing in other marathons at different places which worked as an individual training for us."
The group informed that the game was very unique and competitive, though they couldn't lead in running race, they did make a lead in both cycling and boating till the finish line of the game.
The participants showed their excitement for being a winning team in such a grand international level of game.
Award ceremony
The first, second, third, fourth and fifth of 40 km race winners were awarded with medals along with 3 lakh 60 thousands, 2 lakhs 88 thousands, 2 lakh 16 thousands, 1 lakh 44 thousands and 99 thousands respectively.
In the second 38 kilometres running race, 1 lakh 44 thousands, 1 lakh 8 thousands, 54 thousands, 18 thousands and 9 thousand cash was prized to first, second, third, fourth and fifth of the competitiors respectively.
The 5 km winners of boys and girls were divided and awarded differently. Multiple school students of Pokhara participated in this race where the top five winners were awarded with cash prize starting from 5,000 to 25,000 respectively. The position holders from 6th to 25th were honoured with medals by Chinese Ambassador to Nepal and other officials.
Some glimpses of the event:
