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Aashu Singh shows her Limca Book of Records certificate in Jamshedpur on Saturday. Picture by Bhola Prasad
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Jamshedpur, Feb. 16: Aashu Singh, a 17-year-old pedal prodigy, was yesterday officially recognised as the youngest girl biker to have to have scaled Khardung La (18,380ft) — one of the highest mountain passes in Ladakh — by the Limca Book of Records.
Aashu, who undertook the Ladakh expedition on September 2, 2011, as part of a 103-member all-girls team, was officially 14 years and 308 days old when she scaled the challenging Khardung La.
However, the Sacred Heart Convent School student had to wait for more than a year before the Limca Book authorities officially included Aashu’s name as a record holder.
The earlier record stood in the name of a girl who bicycled up to Khardung La when she was 15 years and 208 days old.
Speaking to The Telegraph on Saturday from her Golmuri residence, Aashu said she had been waiting for this day ever since she returned from her Ladakh trip.
“It feels nice and I am very happy. I was eagerly looking forward to this day,” she beamed.
Her father Uday Prakash Singh, a Tata Steel employee who had put in a lot of effort to bring his daughter’s achievement its due recognition, was also a relieved man.
Authorities of the Limca Book of Records included the mountain maiden’s name in its 2013 edition after conducting a series of checks.
“We have received a certificate which confirms that my daughter is the youngest girl mountain biker in the country to have undertaken the 600km Kullu-Khardung La expedition successfully,” Singh said.
Interestingly, Aashu was the only representative from Bihar-Jharkhand in the team that set out for the expedition from Kullu on August 16, 2011.
Aashu, who has completed her basic mountaineering course from Himalayan Institute of Mountaineering (Uttar Kashi) since the expedition, is keen on pursuing an advanced programme.
Prodded she, however, said she looked at mountaineering as a hobby and had not thought about making it a career.
Aashu also holds the record of being the youngest member in a Tata Steel Adventure Foundation expedition team that went to Langser Kangri in 2012.
She had managed to climb 21,100ft then.
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