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| Photo by IFSC CLIMBING WORLD CUP 2016, NAVI MUMBAI |
A DREAM COMES TRUE...!!
13th May to 16th May 2016. These four days were the most important and memorable days in the life of every Indian climber as they witnessed an Epic event unfolding in front of their eyes. It was 1st ever IFSC Bouldering World Cup held in India. It was a Dream came true for all of us, for all the climbing community in India.
It all started few years ago, when Abhijit Burman AKA Bong Da and Girivihar Family had thought of organising a world cup in India. Girivihar already had history of organising very successful International Open bouldering competitions in Navi Mumbai for many years in a row. A Thought became an Idea, An Idea became The Reality because of the passionate efforts of whole Girivihar Team.
Once they put forth the proposal to IFSC for organising world cup in Navi Mumbai, India, there was no looking back. Bong da knew it was humongous task, specially in country like India. But he and whole Girivihar team was ready to make it possible. He had many meetings with IFSC people, visited many Climbing gyms abroad to get the idea of foreign climbing conditions and climbers. Also Bong da, Franco Linhares, Vinita Chhatwani , Sandeep Bhagyawant and Anushka Kalbag attended World Cup event in Munich to get the practical idea about how to conduct the world cup. They collected every tiny detail of the event. After IFSC Got satisfied with all the aspects, it gave a nod for hosting the world cup in India for the 1st time.
After receiving official permission from IFSC, the real task began. That was Preparation for the event. The 1st and the most hard task was the Fund raising. The budget was in crores. In cricket crazy country like India, it was very hard to reach to the people for funds. They made appeal to all climbing and adventure community to donate anything possible. CIDCO, Navi Mumbai provided very good venue for event that is CIDCO Exhibition Centre in Vashi. Many good friends of Girivihar team Donated with both hands. But still much more was needed. Even though there are people who actually want to support climbing, there are also some who only talk about promoting climbing but when times like this come to financially support the cause they back out. I am saying this from my experience. My home town Nasik, which has considerable numbers of old and new generation of mountaineers and climbers but except for few of us, not a penny was donated from Whole Nasik. Its really sad and shameful thing. Anyway, good cause always finds a way to get through. When there was a month or so left for event and still finance was way too short, Tata Trust came forward and Sponsored Generously. And all the things started to look achievable. It was all possible because of Bong da, Franco and all the Girivihar team which was working relentlessly, sleeplessly. In the final stage of it, they all were working their hearts out. And they did it all by themselves. From arranging funds, reaching out to media, making the Wall (One wall was of Enterprises but 2nd wall was locally made by their trusted carpenter Raju.), arranging accommodation and food for all volunteers and IFSC Officials.
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| Photo by Jitendra Gaikwad |
Participation of some big names in climbing made the atmosphere even more enthusiastic. Rustum Gelmanov from Russia, Sean MacColl from Canada, Shauna Coxsey from UK signed up for world cup. Also big teams from Japan, Iran, Nepal, Korea, Austria, Canada, UK, A climber from Singapore and a big team from our own India. So total 20 countries participated. IFSC sent their Route setters and our own, Vaibhav mehta (Who also did the live commentary on the IFSC Channel live streaming with official commentator) and Praveen from Banglore joined them as route setters. They enjoyed setting routes on Indian wall more than imported wall. All the holds and equipments, one crash-mat were imported. One crash-mat was donated by Gipfel company. So eventually stage was set and Wait for this epic event was about to get over.
Finally on 13th May, event started. Me and my husband Bhushan got the opportunity to be a part of official team which was a huge thing for us. On 1st day, all the registrations took place. Foreign climbers got the taste of Mumbai weather that day. It was horribly hot and humid, but thankfully the Isolation hall and Main hall was AC. Every volunteer was given a duty like registration, ticketing, technical team, brusher team, judging, food and accommodation, Isolation team etc etc. Whole event is supposed to be executed as per strict IFSC Rules and Regulations. I got the ticketing task which was important but we had to sit outside the competition hall, in fact outside the entrance, in that hot humid condition for whole two days and had to skip all the action except the Finals. Poor our Ticketing team ..!! But It was worth the two things. 1st, The totally amazing, mind blowing finals and 2ndly Pride of being part of this historical event.
On 14th, Qualification round took place. 20 men and 20 women climbers including all the big names got through to semi finals. But as expected all the Indian climbers could not perform well. They were short of proper training as there is lack of proper facilities, inappropriate coaching. Also they looked nervous, playing on such a huge platform, competing with so many great climbers. We can't blame them as IMF is supposed to make available better facilities and training to them which is clearly not happening. But still it was good platform for Indian climbers to know the pressure of being in world cup and to train hard accordingly for future.
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| Photo by Jitendra Gaikwad |
Next day, 15th may, started with the Semis. In a surprising competition, favourites like Sean and Shuana dropped out of semis. Rustum made it to the finals. Japanese climbers were amazing. 6 out 20 made it to finals for both men and women. At 6 pm Grand finale started. All of us went inside to watch it. Arena was jam packed. Over thousand spectators were cheering for the climbers, shouting their names, moving from boulder to boulder for better view of each climber. all were very enthusiastic which made finalists to perform better. In the epic battle for podium Japan clearly triumphed. Kokoro Fujii from Japan flashed 3 boulder out of 4 with style and took only 2 attempts for final boulder, his fellow Japanese Tomoa Narasaki wasn't far behind in attempts. 3rd place went to Alexey from Russia. In women group as well Miho Nonaka from Japan did awesome climbing to capture 1st place followed by Monika from Germany for 2nd place and again Akiyo Noguchi from Japan took 3rd palce on podium. It was totally Japan's Day to celebrate. And specially when it was both Kokoro's and Miho's maiden world cup title. They put up a great show and they won the hearts of all Indian crowd. Other than the winners, all climbers from all countries gave all the spectators reason to love them. So the 1st ever world cup hosted in India by Girivihar was a huge huge success.
On 16th may, there was Promotional Masters Climbing Competition. Many Indian climbers as well as Iranian team,Canadian team,Nepalese team took part in it. Canadian Brother & sister Eric & Elise Sethna won the masters competition. In men category 2nd and 3rd spot captured by Iranian climbers. In Women 2nd position went to Iranian climber followed by another Canadian girl for 3rd place. Finally the 4 days event came to an end on a high note. Girivihar got the great reviews from the foreign climbers and IFSC officials about organisation of event. Many tweeted that it was one of the top 3 well organised world cups of 2016. Route setters liked Indian wall for route setting. They all loved the Indian hospitality. Though the over heat was the negative point but every other aspect was nicely organised and there is hope to hold world cup next year as well, hopefully in winter season.
This blog can't end without giving due credit by names to CORE Girivihar team whose tremendous efforts made this possible. Abhijit Burman, Franco Linhares, Vaibhav, Vinita, Sandeep Bhagyawant, Sandeep Varadkar, Sharad, Shyam, Mangesh, Gaurang, Vivek, Sandesh, Neerav, Rohan,Anushka,Kunal, Nishit, Dilip, Kaivan, Priya, Praveen, Sunny, Sunil, Akshay, Divyaka,Nina from Switzerland who worked tirelessly with constant smile for all days and those important members of Girivihar who I don't know personally, All the Sponsors, Donors, Media, each and every other volunteer who came from Mumbai and other states of India. Also those who came from other countries to help with the event. Huge Thanks to all the spectators who made this event a grand success by their presence.
HATS OFF TO THE PASSIONATE EFFORTS OF EVERYBODY!!
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