The Chief Executive Councilor, LAHDC, Leh Rigzin Spalbar along with Sanjeev Sharma, Regional Director Sports Authority of India, officers of Sports Authority of India and  flagged off the Long Distance Running from main Leh gate on 25th April.

It was organized by District Youth Services and Sports, LAHDC, Leh in collaboration with Sports Authority of India. The main objective of this tournament is to develop their skills in Archery and marathon.

Over 150 students in Archery and 450 students in Long Distance Running participated in the Intra-Tribe & Inter Tribe Schools Archery and Long Distance Running Contest 2015-16 in Boys/Girls category of Leh District.
Later, at the award ceremony function organized at Indoor Stadium, Leh, the CEC, Rigzin Spalbar as a chief guest along with  Executive Councilor for Tourism Shafi Lassu and other dignitaries witnessed the inter school boys and girls archery tournament.

Rigzin Spalbar appreciated Sports Authority of India and department of Youth Services and Sports, Leh for organising this tournament cum coaching camp at Leh. He said that Ladakh can do extremely well in Archery and Long distance running but due to lack of infrastructure, coaching, opportunity and other basic facilities our sportspersons are not able to exhibit their talent at national level.

Talking about the dominance of China in world sports, Spalbar said that China is using high altitude areas to train their athletes and Ladakh is an ideal place to train coming Olympians of India by building sports training centres in Ladakh and to start with, a centre of Sports Authority of India is the least necessity of Leh district.

The Regional Director Sports Authority of India, Sanjeev Sharma talks about the importance of sports infrastructure, expert coaching and competition exposure for building a sportsperson, he assured that he will recommend GoI for fulfilling the basic needs of Leh district and also assured to organize residential coaching camps in Leh in coming months.

Later, CEC Rigzin Spalbar, EC Lasu Shafi,  Sanjeev Sharma, Regional Director Sports Authority of  India, Additional SP, Leh T. Gyalpo and Vice President Zonal Head J&K Bank Ladakh V.K Shani distributed certificates and medals to the positions holders.

In the under 19 boys long distance running, Tsering Stobgais of Lamdon Senior Secondary School, Leh bagged first position by finishing 12 km distance in 51:33 time followed by Nawang Tsering of of Lamdon Senior Secondary School, Leh (52:05) and Stanzin Gurmet of Govt.  Boys Higher Secondary School, Leh with the timing of 54:00.
In the under 19 girls long distance running (10 km), Jigmet Dolma of Govt. Girls Higher Secondary School bagged first position by finishing the line in 47:37 timing and Tsering Angmo of Lamdon Senior Secondary School, Leh (49:14) and Diskit Dolma of Govt. Girls Higher Secondary School ( 50:01) bagged second and third position respectively.

In the under 17 Boys (10 Km), Khadim Hussain and in under 17 girls ( 8 km), Stanzin Yangchen of Moravian Mission School, Leh bagged first positions.

In under 14 Boys ( 8 km), Madhv Sudan of M/S Sankar stood first and in under 14 girls ( 5 km), Rinchen Dolma of M/S Spituk stood first.

It is to mention that some of the students who topped the tournament have also participated in Mumbai Marathon recently with encouraging results.

In the Archery, Mohd Arif of Govt. Boys Higher Secondary School Leh was declared the best archer in under 18 years boys category while as Tashi Dolker of Higher Secondary School Khalatse was declared best archer in under 18 girls.
In under 14 boys, Stanzin Wangdus of Lamdon Senior Secondary School, Leh and in under 14 girls, Stanzin Ladol of High School Housing Colony was declared best archers.

During the tournament, J&K bank, Leh provided refreshments to the athlete students.

A cultural programme by students was also presented on the occasions.