dehradun even though the border between india and nepal adjoining uttarakhand is still closed following the covid lockdown and eruption of tensions between the two countries on the kalapani issue permission was granted to sportspersons from nepal to participate in the threeday adventure sports festival being held in the nayar valley of pauri among those who are participating in the event are two women bikers from nepal the duo usha khanal 27 and anisha gurung 22 flew down from kathmandu to dhanghadi a border town of nepal from where they rode their bikes to the banbasa entry point in champawat the two are the lone women bikers from the neighbouring country who are participating in the adventure sports fest which kicked off on thursday speaking to toi khanal who hails from kathmandu and has completed her management studies said that it had been difficult for her to convince her family to pursue her passion for mountain biking a predominantlymale dominated sporti got fascinated with mountain biking after seeing one of my rider friends who used to travel to various places i started around four years ago and met with an accident in the very first year of taking to bike riding my family wasnt too supportive of my riding but later they agreed especially after i won a silver medal in the south asian games that were held in nepal in 2019 added khanal who drove from bilkhet to parsundakhal a distance of around 62 km during the second day of the adventure festival on fridayresistance from family was something that gurung says she too encounteredi started bike riding when i was just around 17 nepal is a mountainous country and one of the best ways to explore the mountains is biking she saidthe two feel that women in nepal are coming out to participate in adventure sports but they are still hesitant in participating in activities like mountain bikingthis sport is risky and if you get hurt you can get bruises and wounds on your body many women are hesitant because of the risks involved said khanalboth khanal and gurung say that india is like a second home there might be political tensions going on between the two countries but there is no tension at a peopletopeople level they addedi have seen taj mahal and many places in india during school days i love the people in india and have many friends here said khanal while gurung added that she travelled solo to darjeeling from kathmandu on a bicycle in 2018 and is in love with indian dishes meanwhile the second day of the adventure festival on friday remained full of excitement as many as 22 runners took part in trail running from the cantonment town of lansdowne to khairassan the ancestral village of cm trivendra singh rawattwelve jawans of garhwal rifles six soldiers of bsf as well as local youths participated in the trail running said dheeraj garbyal district magistrate pauriamong the other highlights was a paragliding