Shillong, Sept 23: The Whitewater village on the Umtrew river in Umtham, Ri Bhoi district is gearing up to become India’s adventure hotspot with the focus on over 80 International and Indian athletes set to participate in the MeghaKayak Festival, which is scheduled to be held from October 13-16th, 2022.
The Megha Kayak Festival (MKF) is an international Whitewater Kayaking competition in its 5th year, which includes the downriver time-trail event and the Extreme Slalom race.
Amongst the list of confirmed athletes, it includes current and past Olympians such as Giovanni De Gennaro (Italy), Sofia Reinoso (Mexico), VavraHradilek (Czech Republic); Extreme kayaking world champions Nouria Newman (France) and Adrian Mattern (Germany). The list of athletes participating in the event is growing by the day and the organisers expect athletes belonging to over 20 nationalities to eventually be in the fray.
The Whitewater village, Umtham, which is hosting this event is ready to have a large group of spectators, and will even provide two kayaking workshops, with special consideration for aspiring female kayakers.
The aim of this festival is to promote adventure tourism and help establish Meghalaya as one of the major water sports destinations globally and organised by the Ri Bhoi Watersports and Tourism Cooperative Society along with Goodwave Adventures, with funding and support from the Department of Tourism, Government of Meghalaya.
Details of the workshop will be made available soon on the festival’s official Instagram handle @meghakayakfest and the website www.meghakayakfest.com.
The Meghalaya Tourism Department has extended support to promote Whitewater sports and helped form the first district-level co-operative society in Meghalaya.
Thus, the Ri Bhoi Water Sports and Tourism Cooperative Society Ltd. was founded in 2022, which has 22 members from the district to promote Whitewater sports for sports and tourism and make Meghalaya an International attraction for the sport.
