Red Bull Tlang Ruam: Yawar Ali Khan Finishes Third In India's First Urban Downhill Mountain Biking Event

India's Yawar Ali Khan finished third in the Red Bull Tlang Ruam, held in Aizawl on Saturday (October 26, 2024). Chiang 'Dan' Sheng Shan from Taipei City won the race and Rama Teguh Adi Pratama from Indonesia stood second. (More Sports News)

Giving a chance to 22 downhill bike riders to showcase their talent to a global audience, the Red Bull Tlang Ruam was India's first urban downhill mountain biking event. It was held in Mizoram's capital city from October 24 to 26. As the winner of the competition, Dan now gets an opportunity to compete at a Red Bull Cerro Abajo event in South America.

The event also had mentorship sessions by Tomas Slavik from Czech Republic and Pedro Burns from Chile across 24th and 25th October. The competition featured qualifiers and the main race on 26th October.

Urban downhill is an event that combines the sport of downhill mountain biking with the challenge of tight spaces of a city, and needs great skill and precision.

Among the 22 riders, 17 were from India, coming from various states like Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir (third-placed Yawar is from there).

Talking about the mentors, Slavik is regarded as one of the elite performers in the mountain bike 4X discipline. He is a 44-time race winner, with three World Championships to his name. Burns is a talented rider in the Chilean mountain bike scene. He took his talent to the Enduro World Series in 2019, and has been among the top 20 best-ranked riders in the world since then.