The Asian Mountain Bike Championship-2008 has begun in Kathmandu from Thursday amidst the official opening ceremony.
Representatives form the Union Cycling International, Asian Cycling Confederation have already arrived in Kathmandu, Gopal Sunder Lal Kakshapati, vice president of the Nepal Cycling Association (NCA) and the chief coordinator of this event told Xinhua.
"Competition will be held in Chobhar hill of Kathmandu," said Kakshapati.
Talking to Xinhua, Kakshapati said, "After three years of efforts, we have got this honor to host the Mountain Bike Championship (MTB)." This event will promote sports tourism in the country and will allow Nepal to host more sports events in the future, he said.
"Nepal has got a favorable environment and suitable track to host the MTB," Kakshapati told Xinhua. "In future days, if we got the opportunity we'll host events in Pokhara (some 140 km west of Kathmandu) and Ilam (some 280 km east of Kathmandu), respectively," he added.
According to the NCA, development of the race course for both cross country and down hill championship has been completed. The total length of cross country championship race is 5.09 km per lap and down hill race is 1.20 km. The total number of the lap for cross country race will be decided by Chief Commissaries after the route inspection.
Registration from different countries or regions including Nepal has been made. A total of 66 riders are participating in four different categories like Cross Country -Elite Men (30 participants), Cross Country - Elite Women (11), Down Hill - EliteMen (22), Down Hill -Elite Women (3). However, eight riders from Nepal are participating.
The participating countries and regions include China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Iran, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Nepal.
Source: Xinhua
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