India clinch gold, silver in Alpine Men`s Giant Slalom event

Auli: India on Friday clinched gold and silver medals in the Alpine Giant Slalom skiing event in men`s category after the second and the last leg of South Asian Federation (SAF) winter games kicked off here on Friday.

Arif Khan won the gold with a timing of 2 minutes and 21.60 seconds, while Jamyang who took 2 minutes and 21.74 seconds to settle for a silver. Bronze medal was bagged by a Pakistani, who helped his country open its account in SAF winter games by registering a timing of 2 minutes and 21.75 seconds. Earlier, all the medals in ice-skating events were won by India only, which was held in Dehra Dun from Jan 10-12.Meanwhile, earlier today, the official inauguration of the skii event here was delayed as Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank could not reach the hill station on time due to bad weather. In the morning, some parts of Uttarakhand received intermittent rainfall. Auli has been developed as the world class destination for winter games for skiing events and Uttarakhand government believes that the games would help in attracting sports lovers as well as tourists from home and abroad to the hill state. PTI