Jamshedpur: The eight-member sport climbing contingent, which will represent India at the 18th Asian Games to be held in Jakarta from August 18, will sharpen their skills at the JRD Tata Sports Complex here during a nine-day preparatory camp organised by the TSAF under the aegis of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) from Wednesday.

Maibam Chingkheinganba (Manipur), Adarsh Singh (Delhi), Bharat Pareira (Bangalore), Shivpreet Pannu (Punjab) Shreya Mankar, Arnav Khanzode, Arundhati Jadhav and Soha Ninad Diwan (all from Pune) have already arrived in the city.

The IMF allowed the camp to be held in Jamshedpur, a first such honour for the steel city, as the venue here is equipped with the adequate infrastructure.

The climbers will train under the watchful eyes of coaches Vickey Bhalerao (Pune), Bibhas Roy (Jamshedpur), Chitrasen Singh (Manipur) and Amit Sharma (Delhi) and work on speed, lead and bouldering, the three categories of the discipline. The timings for the camp is 6am to 9am and 6pm to 9pm.

TSAF manager Pranav Mamgain, who convened a meeting on Tuesday to discuss details related to the camp said, "It is a big honour for the city. TSAF alone has artificial climbing walls in the state. The IMF kept it in mind while deciding on Jamshedpur as the venue for the preparatory camp."

The Jamshedpur-based adventure outfit has three separate walls for the three variants of the game. A new and separate facility for speed climbing was set up at the JRD Tata Sports Complex last year. TSAF also runs a dedicated sport climbing centre.

A TSAF sport climbing coach said the camp would also benefit the trainees of the centre as they would be able to watch national-level climbers from close quarters. "Our cadets will be able to pick some new tricks by interacting with outstation climbers and coaches," he added.

The adventure body has conducted zonal competitions here. It is going to organise the Open National Sport Climbing competition on May 27 and 28.