Jamshedpur: Siblings Neetu and Neha Mahto of Tumung in East Singhbhum earned the first medals for the state on the opening day of the 23rd East Zone Sport Climbing Competition at JRD Tata Sports Complex in Bistupur here on Saturday.

Neetu (13) and Neha (15) bagged gold and silver, respectively, in the junior girls' bouldering section to bring smiles in the Jharkhand camp even as team mates Talim Ansari and Aman Verma made it to the summit clash in different age groups.

"I am very happy to win gold. I had worked hard for the meet," said Neetu, a class IX student of Geelilata High School in Tumung, some 25km from here. Neha, also in the same class in the same school, said she would have loved to outwit her sister "but Neetu performed better than me."

Talim, the lone international climber from Jharkhand, reached the final of junior boys' bouldering while Aman Verma made it in the sub-junior category. Both are trainees at the sport climbing cradle run by Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF)

Others who made it to the junior boys' bouldering final include Rohit Biswas, Aayush Gurung, S.K. Raj, Shivcharan Gope (all from TSAF) and Biswajit Haldar (Bengal).

Aman was joined by TSAF mates Sarfaraz Alam and Badal Singh as well as Bengal's Raju Nayak, Ridam Chetri and Sumeru Shankar in the sub-junior boys bouldering final.

It was TSAF all the way in bouldering for sub-junior girls with Asmita Dey, Anisha Ver-ma, Simran Kumari, Vidula Pr-akash, B Nayashi and Poonam Mahata making it to the final.

The premier adventure outfit, which boasts the only artificial walls in the state, also called the shots in senior men bouldering category sealing three slots (out of four), thanks to Sonu Khan, Babulal Rawat and Akhil Singh. Bengal's Suraj Singh joined them in the summit clash.

A total of 90 climbers from Jharkhand, Bengal, Odisha and Bihar are participating in the two-day zonal meet organised by TSAF under the auspices of East Zone Committee of Indian Mountaineering Foundation.