News in RISING KASHMIR

Rising Kashmir June 24/ 2009: When a person plays cricket he’s called cricketer, if he plays football he’s footballer but what should we call a person who has played in six different games and excelled in all of them at national and international level!
Riyaz Ahmad Wani is one such sports person. He has represented the state in two international championships and more than 30 national championships in six different sporting disciplines so far and he didn’t remember how many district, state and other cross country road and cycle races he has won.
Riyaz has represented state and country in two international events in White Water Rafting Championship. He took part in Four Square white water rafting challenge in 1999 and 2000. The championship was held at Rishikesk Uttranchal on Ganges River in which teams from USA, Australia, South Africa and many other parts of the world participated. Riyaz was part of Kashmir University team in these two championships.
In athletics, he represented the state twice, first in All India cross-country race of Shivaji University Maharashtra in 1999 and second was Inter University Athletic Meet at Kurukshetra University in 2000. But Reyaz came to limelight in cycling in which he represented the state nine times. He has participated in four road cycling nationals from 2002 to 2007, four MTB national from 2003 to 2007 and also took part in one national track championship at Patialia in 2005.
In cycle polo he has played 10 nationals from 1999 to 2006 and he has also participated three rope-skipping nationals were he bagged several medals. Triathlon that is considered the toughest event in sports involving three disciplines swimming, cycling and road Race, Riyaz has represented state in one national that was held at Chandigarh in 2004.
Riyaz has also participated in NCC activities and has acquired B and C level certificate. He was also been part of NCC state team, which did Sailing expedition of 553 kilometers in Bilaspur Himachal Pradesh in 1999. He is the only person in J&K who participated and completed successfully Enduro challenge that was held in 2004 at Maharashtra.Eduro involving swimming,
Besides participating in nationals Riyaz has also participated in skiing at Gulmarg, White Water Rafting in Sind and Chenab rivers, Rock Climbing at Patnitop as part of Kashmir University team from 1997 to 1999.
Riyaz, a resident of Gojwara Srinagar working in government material testing laboratory got in touch with sports when he was Class 11 student at SP Higher Secondary School and won first cycle race of his career.
Riyaz says, “I was not interested in sports during my childhood and it was only when my friend Sajad Ahmad who was studying with me at SP Higher Secondary registered my name for annual cycle race of school. I won that race and started practicing hard in athletics and cycling. It was again Sajad who gifted me brand new Atlas cycle and this proved to be turning point in my career.”
“After passing class 12th, I joined Islamia College of Science and Commerce Hawal and there I won for three consecutive years both road race and cycling champion. I also bagged three consecutive inter-college titles in both road race and cycling for my college,” Reyaz said.
Asked about the reasons for participating in so many games Riyaz said, “I was basically interested in athletics, but when I saw that the associations don’t have funds and players are spending out of their own pockets I switched from to cycling, cycle polo, swimming, triatlthlon and many other sports as well.”
“The other reasons for excelling in so many sports is that athletics is base of all sports and it was easy to switch from athletics to cycling and others. But now I consider myself as a cyclist and wants to ride on my cycle to every possible hilly area of whole state” added Riyaz
Riyaz doesn’t recall how many athletic championships, cycling races, triathlon races, Dal cross he has participated. But he remembers the major ones such as Tour-de-Kashmir race from Srinagar to Pahalgam which he won twice, Chinar race from Ganderbal to Srinagar which he won thrice.
Riyaz is now General Secretary of J&K Cycling Association and in past three years has made cycling one of the popular sports in Kashmir.
“I wasn’t interested in joining the association but my colleagues forced me. In last three years we have distributed more than 800 cycles through Chinar Cycle Race, in collaboration with different sponsors. I have also helped cyclists of different areas to form clubs and introduced cycling in various districts of state and this time we have more than 3000 registered cyclists in Kashmir province only,” Riyaz added.
Riyaz received cycling coaching from different coaches of India and regards Asif Mehmood highly as it was Asif who gave him all the coaching of adventure sports and knowledge regarding different places and taught him techniques of adventure sports.
Riyaz has various suggestions for the development of sports in valley and is ready to work with sports council on voluntary basis.