MANANTHAVADY (WAYANAD):
Two of the 21 cyclists in the international category of the upcoming MTB (Mountain Bike) Kerala are women, thus invalidating gender-based divisions prevalent conventionally in the world of sports, especially in adventure events.
Naima Madlen Diesner of Germany and Laxmi Magar of Nepal will bike along with 19 men this Sunday when 2019 MTB’s most-awaited segment will unveil down a 4.8-km stretch around the Priyadarshini Tea Environs in this town of the state’s northeastern Wayanad district.
MTB, billed as India’s pioneering event listed under the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) which is the apex organization for cycling bodies the world over, has its 6th edition being organised by the Kerala government’s Department of Tourism under the aegis of Kerala Adventure Tourism Promotion Society (KATPS), District Tourism Promotion Council- Wayanad and the Cycling Federation of India (CFI).
Naima (29) had emerged the runner-up at the Tour of Arava in Israel, the elite category of the women-only event in West Asia, in March this year, by covering the 68-km track in 2:10.35 hours. A doctor by profession, her favourite items in cycling are MTB and road race. As for 31-year-old Laxmi, she is a three-time MTB champion touted as the first Nepalese cyclist of international repute.
Hailed as ‘Nepal’s Queen of the Mountain’ owing to her specialty in adventure MTB racing, she had earlier this month clinched the gold at the South Asian Games in Kathmandu by finishing first at the cross-country cycling. Laxmi came 10th in the elite category of cycling at last year’s Asian Games in Jakarta and 9th at the Incheon Asian Games of 2014. In 2015, she was crowned ‘India’s Trans-Himalayan Queen of the Mountain’ after winning the Manali-Khardungla Cycling Championship.
This is the first time MTB Kerala is holding its international category event without gender barriers, after having got the UCI’s permission, according to KATPS Chief Executive Officer Manesh Bhaskar. “The earlier five editions had only men participating in the elite segment,” he pointed out.
The men in the international category of MTB 2019 includes three Indian cyclists also. The others are Arman Antonyan, Arthur Kochinyan (both Armenia), Ahmed Abdulghani Isa Ahmed Mahdi Madan, Mansoor Mohamed Mansoor Jawad (both Bahrain), Cory Wallace (Canada), Abdul Halim bin Md Yusoff, Muhammad Aidil bin Taufid Afendi (both Malaysia), Ahmed Waheed, Ali Shanan (Maldives), Saw Eh Khu, Nay Myo Aung (both Myanmar), Buddhi Bahadur Tamang (Nepal), Chamika Sandun Kumara Weerappullige, Dane Steve Nugera (both Sri Lanka), Luqmanul Hakim bin Othman (Singapore), Askar Togaybekov and Bakhtiyor Nuradinov (both Uzbekistan).
The top winner of the international segment will get a purse of Rs 1.5 lakh, while those finishing second, third, fourth and fifth get Rs 1 lakh, Rs 50,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 20,000, respectively.
Kerala Minister Kadannappalli Ramachandran will formally inaugurate the event on Sunday, which is also when the MTB will hold its national-level races. There is also an amateur ‘Fun and Thrill’ category round for men and women: the trial is on Thursday (December 20) and the final on Friday.
