Srinagar: The first Olympian of J&K, Gul Mustafa Dev, on Tuesday was given a grand farewell upon his retirement from the services.
Gul Mustafa is scheduled to retire from Youth Services and Sports Department services on May 31, and on Tuesday Department hosted a farewell function for the star athlete turned skiing trainer of J&K.
Director of the Department Subash C Chibber presided over the function and it was also attended by Joint Director Kashmir apart from other senior officers and officials of the Directorate, JD Office, District Youth Services and Sports Office Srinagar and Gulmarg Hutments.
Terming Gul as the pride of the YSS Department, Director YSS has expressed his gratitude to the retiring athlete for training thousands of J&K’s young boys and girls in Skiing.
In his speech, JD YSS while praising Olympian, said “Hope Dev would continue his mentorship in the future as well as the Department would like to proudly utilize his services as a guide in conducting winter sports activities”.
Emotional Dev expressed his gratitude towards every employee of the Department for rendering a helping hand to him while he was discharging his professional duties in the Department.
Gul Mustafa Dev represented India in the 1st Winter Asian Games in Japan in 1986 besides representing the Country in XV Winter Olympic Games in Canada in 1988.
Gul was Selected as National Coach for the 14th Junior Asian Games held in China in 2005, and team leader for Team India for the International Skiing Event in Italy in 2009. He has been conferred with many prestigious awards which include, Sher-i-Kashmir Gold Medal in 1988 and State Award in 2011.
