Category: Icestock

SRINAGAR: The 7th National Icestock Sports Championship 2020-21 concluded here at Ice Rink, Gulmarg on Sunday. After holding Districts and Regional Championships the Indian Icestock sports federation conducted the national level Championship for all 3 age groups in both genders at Gulmarg from 28th Jan. to 31st Jan 2021. Nearly 280 boys and girls from 20 states of different age categories took part in these fascinating and thrilling Championships.

A close cousin of curling and pétanque, ice stock sport (Eisstock in German) is a sport that has been played for centuries in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Like curling it is played on ice and involves sliding a heavy object (known as a “stock”) in the direction of a target. And like pétanque, the target in question, known as a daube, moves when it is hit, with points being scored by the stocks closest to it.

Weighing 4.3kg, stocks are much lighter than curling stones, however, and come with a handle, while the daube is a rubber disc that is 12cm in diameter. Competitors hold the stock by the handle and swing it back and forth before releasing it onto the ice, the aim being to get as close as possible to the daube or to dislodge any rival stocks around it.

Several Eisstock competitions were held on Lake Rießersee as part of Garmisch 1936, namely men’s international team and individual events (target shooting and distance shooting), and a national competition for men and women and also involving team and individual events. With admission free, a large number of spectators turned up to watch the action unfold.

Eight teams entered the men’s international competitions, three representing Germany, three Austria and two Czechoslovakia, with each team facing each other once. In recording six wins and a solitary defeat, Austria’s first team, made up of Wilhelm Silbermayr, Anton and Otto Ritzl and Wilhelm Pichler and Rudolf Rainer, all of whom hailed from the Tyrol, took the honours from Germany III and Austria II.

The individual distance shooting event was again contested by German, Austrian and Czechoslovakian players, with each competitor having three throws. Austria’s Georg Edenhauser sent his disc sliding fully 154.6m with his second attempt to win by some distance from compatriot Friedrich Mosshammer and Germany’s Ludwig Retzer.

The target shooting competition went the way of the Austrian Ignaz Rieterer, who scored 15 points, while Germany’s August Brunner and Czechoslovakia’s Karl Wolfinger both totalled nine points in taking second and third places.

The spectacle continued with the national competitions, with local club SC Rießersee beating 13 other outfits in the 88-match men’s team event, while the spoils in the women’s team competition went to Altona of Hamburg. Johann Hacker won the men’s German distance shooting title with a throw of 95.2m, and Josef Kreitmeier and Mathilde Seyffarth respectively came out on top in the men’s and women’s target shooting.

Eisstock would make its return as an Olympic demonstration sport 28 years later, at Innsbruck 1964.

Jammu and Kashmir State Icestock team is all set to play in 12th Icestock World Championship-2018, to be held at Winklarn and Amstetten in Austria from 26th of February.
J&K Icestock team will represent India in World Championship-2018 in two different events (Individual and Team) and the championship will likely proceed till 3rd of March.
Meanwhile, the team qualified for the 12th Icestock World Championship after thrashing eight States in 4th National Icestock Sport Championship- 2018, which was held at Ice Rink Gulmarg.

Moreover, the 12th Icestock World Championship will be organized by the International Federation Icestocksport (IFI) under the Patronage of President of IFI, Manfred Schafer.
Pertinent to mention here that in 2012, Schafer visited Kashmir for introducing Icestock sport in Kashmir besides holding Icestock camps and to train the players of Kashmir. He had also provided Officiating course to almost 12 boys at Gulmarg.
Tournament Director of J&K Icestock Sport, Irfan Aziz Botta told Kashmir Post that they are excited to compete at World Championship and he said that Icestock is a recreational and eye-candy sport that needs less endurance and physical strength.
“Though anyone can play it but we launched this game in Kashmir to add a feature in the lives of those people who don’t get out of their cozy beds,” he adds.
Captain of the Team Target Competition, Mohammad Sarfaraaz said that they are practicing to hone their skills from past two months at Gulmarg to prepare for World Championship.
Earlier, the 4th National Icestock Championship was held under three different events comprising of ‘Team Target Competition’, ‘Individual Target Competition’ and ‘Distance Competition’ respectively.
J&K State Icestock team brushed off all the three categories and captured first place on Podium and won Gold Medals in each category.
In the ‘Team Target Competition’, comprising of 4 players – Captain, Mohammad Sarfaraaz, Peerzaada Faheem Shah, Salim Shafi Bhat and Peer Adil Manzoor won Gold medal.

While as, Irfan Aziz Botta dusted Maharashtra in ‘Individual Target Competition’ and earned Gold medal.
Moreover, in third and final category, Junaid Hussain Mir hammered Haryana in Distance Competition to bag third Gold Medal for the J&K State Icestock Sport.
Meanwhile, the 4th National Championship was organized by Jammu and Kashmir Icestock Sport Association under the aegis of Indian Icestock Sports Federation which is recognized with the Global Association of International Sports Federation and affiliated with International Federation Icestock Sport and Kashmir Winter Games