Opportunity awaits budding climbers from Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) in the Tata Steel sport climbing championship that will unfold in the steel city for the first time on Saturday.

The climbers in the 8-13 age group have competed in national sport climbing competitions earlier but displaying their skills at home will be a different feeling.

The likes of Suraj Singh Thakur, 13, Vridula Prakash Abhala, 12, Abhishek Rawat, 12, Ronit Bandra, 12, Harpreet Singh Yadav, 9, Inika Prakash Abhala 8, Kiran Singh Thakur, 12, and Kundan Kumar Singh, 11, are into sport climbing for less than two years but are making steady progress.

The kids learn the ropes under Calcutta-based mentor Bibhas Roy at the cradle run by the Jamshedpur-based premier adventure outfit . The trainees are attentive, disciplined and take the sport seriously. Suraj and Vridula have won medals at national events.

“I have taken to sport climbing since I don’t get opportunity to bat and bowl in cricket,” said Harpreet. “Boys older than me don’t give me any chance. I get ample opportunity to display my skills in sport climbing,”

Vridula said she was looking forward to the championship with confidence. “I want to perform and win a medal,” she said.

Most of the kids said they were very keen to win medals at home competition and have adapted quite well to separate lead, speed and bouldering walls at TSAF.

With sport climbing included as one of the disciplines in 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, TSAF is keen to put emphasise more on the training module of cadets under its wings. TSAF trainees and siblings Aman and Anisha Verma have already won medals at the international level. Both stay at the Sports Hostel inside JRD Tata Sports Complex.

The Tata Steel national open sport climbing championship was inaugurated on Friday evening by Tata Steel vice-president (HRM) Suresh Dutt Tripathi in the presence of legendary climber Bachendri Pal and German rock climber Chiara Hanke.