Dream Ski Programme: Jumma Mir, Muhammad Mumtaz return home with accolades

The Pakistani athletes from Naltar outpace 30 participants in Korea.

KARACHI: Teenagers Jumma Mir and Muhammad Mumtaz from Naltar Valley in the Gilgit-Baltistan province made Pakistan proud after bringing home a gold and silver medal respectively from South Korea, having outpaced 30 participants in the two-week long Dream Ski Programme. 

Mir and Mumtaz returned from Korea on Saturday morning and were commended for their efforts by the Ski Federation of Pakistan (SFP) in Islamabad.

“We are very proud. Our children have been winning medals in Korea for the last two years now,” SFP secretary Mussarat Ali told The Express Tribune. “The achievement is even bigger because they were the best among 30 athletes from different countries, despite this being their international debut.”

According to Ali, this experience had changed the teenagers’ lives. “They had never even gone to Gilgit before this trip. They are more confident and self-assured after training with the best athletes from around the world.”

The secretary added that the reason for the success of the Pakistani youth in the Dream Ski Programme was due to the SFP’s policy to shortlist players based on merit. “We only select the best talent, not based on their contacts in the federation.”

Ali said that the SFP will continue sending athletes to the skiing programme till 2018 as they had signed an agreement with the Korean Embassy back in 2011.

“This time we sent only two athletes, next time we are hoping to give at least three a chance,” he said, while adding that the SFP will try to send an athlete from Malam Jabba in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to Korea for the Paralympics category.

“We have an athlete who was affected by polio and we’re hoping he can represent Pakistan at the Paralympics in Korea as well.”

Meanwhile, SFP vice president Javed Iqbal also praised Mir and Mumtaz and said that the federation will focus on training and educating the boys and girls in Naltar and Malam Jabba.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 8^th, 2015.

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