Himachal This Week
The 19th edition of the cross-country rally was flagged off from Manali with the stages starting on the following day. Leg 1 took competitors around 200km to Kaza in Spiti Valley via Gramphoo and Losar. The extremely rough 76km competitive section was very tricky and took a toll on both the competitors and their vehicles. In fact, after Leg 2, which took competitors back the same way towards Pang, a majority of the competitors dropped out due to vehicle damage. Suresh Rana and PVS Murthy, in their Maruti Grand Vitara, managed to build up a 20-minute lead ahead of Sanjay Razdan and Karan Aukta. In the Moto class, TVS Racing’s R Nataraj was 1min 31sec ahead of Tanveer. For the next leg competitors made their way to Kargil for two competitive stages from Sankoo to Drass and back. Suresh Rana continued to extend his lead over Razdan, as did Tanveer over Nataraj.
Leg 5 was one of the toughest stages in the rally, taking participants around 300km towards Penzi La and back via Rangdum. But Rana was still going strong as was Tanveer. Rana finished first with a 51min lead ahead of Razdan, while Sanjay Agarwal and co-driver Smitha N finished third. In the Moto-class, Tanveer finished with a 3min lead ahead of Nataraj. TVS Racing’s Rajendra RE finished third. In the Adventure category, which is held in a TSD (Time, speed, distance) format, Shubam Middha and Anshul Asati won the overall Car category while Shailendra Singh and Dinky Varghese K won the SUV class.
-Suresh Rana
Himachali Girls Win Silver In National Handball
Shubham Rahi
12 Air Force Pilots Create History At Bir
Chaman Dohru
Once again history was created at the world’s most popular sight for paragliding at Bir-Billing as 12 Air Force pilots landed safely after having tandem flights and then jumping through parachute from 5, 000 and 8, 000 meters above from the ground. This event has also been registered in the Limca Book of World Records also. Every pilot was honoured with a pahari cap after the event. Deputy Commissioner, CP Verma was present on the occasion.
Himachali Lady Shines