21-year-old Aanchal Thakur from Manali etched her name in history books after she won India’s first-ever international skiing medal.
Aanchal won bronze in the coveted Alpine Ejder 3200 Cup at the Palandoken Ski Centre in Erzurum in Turkey. The event was organised by the Federation Internationale de Ski (FIS), the international governing body for skiing. She won the medal in the slalom race category.
Finally something unexpected happened. My first ever international medal.? Federation International Ski Race (FIS). At the end turkey served me well ??.
PC- @alwyncreed #strangethingshappen #skiteamindia #onehimachal #himalayangirls pic.twitter.com/pjkSddCpi5— Aanchal Thakur (@alleaanchal) January 9, 2018
Months of training have finally borne fruit. I started well and managed to take a good lead, which helped later in managing a third-place finish.
Aanchal Kumar to Times Of India.
Well done @alleaanchal for winning an international medal in skiing! The entire nation is ecstatic on your historic accomplishment at the FIS International Skiing Competition in Turkey. Wishing you the very best for your future endeavours.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 10, 2018
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who follows Aanchal on Twitter, took to the micro-blogging site to congratulate her.
Roshan Thakur, the secretary general of the Winter Games Federation of India (WGFI), was a proud father after he got the news of his daughter’s feat.
“This is a breakthrough for the sport in India,” Roshan told TOI. “Aanchal called me on WhatsApp and showed me the medal. Initially, I thought it was a souvenir one gets at the end of every FIS event! But she told me that she won a bronze.