Kalpetta: Iran team wins gold in mountain biking event

Kalpetta:The Iranian team emerged winners in the 5th edition of the two-day annual mountain biking event 'MTB Kerala 2018' organised by department of tourism which concluded on Saturday at  Priyadarshini Tea Estate near Mananthavady here.

Iranian national cycling team member and Asian Games silver medalist Faraz Shokri bagged gold medal while the country's Parveese Mardani won the silver.

Faraz completed the 38.4-kilometre distance with one hour, forty-three minutes and 29 seconds. Thailand's Adisak bagged the bronze.

Cyclists from ten countries including India participated in the cross-country cycling competitions.  In the national-level competition for men, K. Kirankumar Raju of Karnataka bagged gold while Devender Kumar and Shivan of Himachal Pradesh bagged silver and bronze medals, respectively.

In the national women's category, Pranitha Soman of Maharashtra bagged gold medal while participants from the state Lidiya M Sunny and A P Sayi bagged silver and bronze medals respectively.Minister for sports Kadakampally Surendran inaugurated the valedictory function at Pancharakolly in the evening.  Minister for ports Ramachandran Kadannappalli distributed medals. Winners in the international-level competitions also bagged cash awards of Rs 1.25 lakh, Rs 80,000 and Rs 50,000 for first, second and third respectively.An initiative of Kerala Adventure Tourism Promotion Society (KATPS) under the department of tourism, MTB aims at attracting tourists, travellers and adventure lovers across the globe to scale, gauge and explore thepromising prospects of cycling in the lap of nature.