Srinagar, March 30: A professional Kashmiri cyclist Adil Teli on Tuesday created history by covering the 3600 kilometers distance between Kashmir and Kanyakumari within eight days, one hour and 37 minutes time duration.
An official said that braving all odds — including rough terrains, harsh climatic conditions, traffic snarls and other difficulties — Adil kept riding to break the Guinness Book of World Record set by Om Mahajan, who covered the same distance within eight days, seven hours and 38 minutes last year.
Adil started his journey on March 22 from Lal Chowk area of Srinagar. Passionate about cycling, Adil had already set a record in his name by covering 440 Kilometres distance from Srinagar to Leh in just 26 hrs, 30 min.
For Adil, the Srinagar-Leh Cycling expedition turned a turning point boosting him to go for more and set eyes on breaking the World Record; however, it was not easy and needed dedication, passion, stamina and proper guidance and training.
To chase his dream of setting the world record, Adil went to Amritsar where he went under rigorous training for 4-5 months.
Adil, did his training for cycling at the Gurunanak Dev University at Amritsar.
He was trained at different levels, while in JNDU (University) he trained for 10,000 kms of endurance and another 20,000 kms. The training helped him take up the Kashmir to Kanyakumari Challenge. He was amongst the top 10 in the National Championship in the fixed Spring finish.
At the beginning of the pandemic, it was a challenge for the cyclist to arrange for bicycle parts and with the ban on imported parts, but sponsors got involved and his requirements were arranged.
Staring his journey from Srinagar, Adil pedalled through many states including cities such as Sanant Nagar NH44, Qazigund, New Tunnel Banihal, Nashri Tunnel, Lakhanpur, Pathankot, Jalandar, Ludhiana, Delhi, Agra, Gwalior, Jhansi, Nagpur, Hyderabad, Gutti, Banglore, Madurai and finally Kanyakumari. (UNI)
