People enjoy with snow at historic Ridge Road after heavy snowfall in Shimla. Asia's oldest skating clay surface rink in this Himachal Pradesh hill town had a natural coating of thick ice for the first time Friday in this season, thanks to the freezing winter.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Shimla: 'Gymkhana' and 'Carnival' were hosted at Asia's biggest natural ice-skating rink built in 1920 after a gap of six years on Tuesday, officials of the Shimla Ice Skating club said.
The tradition of Gymkhana and Carnival was disrupted due to the pandemic and unusual weather conditions.
Sports enthusiasts and skaters participated in various races for tiny tots, Under-10, Under-14, Under-16, and the open category besides Figure skating competition in Gymkhana, said Organising secretary of the club Rajat Malhotra.
Curricular events including fancy dress competitions, chain tag, giant wheel, jumps over baskets were organized during the carnival held in the evening and skaters holding burning torches (mashals) in their hands was the highlight.
"There is a proposal to build an artificial all-weather skating rink here and I would take up the matter with Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu for allocating budget for the skating rink," said Sports minister Yadvinder Goma who was the chief guest on the occasion.