Himanshu Thakur gets Iran Visa for Winter Olympics qualification thanks to Indian government intervention
Indian alpine skier, Himanshu Thakur, got the required visa clearance thanks to the Indian Government’s timely intervention, which cleared the way for his participation in the Winter Olympics qualification in Tehran. Earlier, he was denied the visa which could have seen his exclusion from the tour.
Three days ago, it was learned that Thakur had not received permission to board the flight from Frankfurt to Tehran and he took to Twitter to get some help from Indian ministers. He mentioned the name of Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Sushma Swaraj, and PM Narendra Modi in his tweet to help him out with the required documents. After government's help, Thakur has finally received the visa clearance from the Iranian Embassy in New Delhi. Because of the delay, he missed the opening day competition at Darbandsar Ski Resort in Iran but he has the chance to take part tomorrow and day after.
Roshan Thakur, Himanshu's father, thanked the Indian government for helping his son at the crucial stage in his career despite a short notice.
"He missed out on competition today but he has two more days. He has been
Four years ago at the Sochi Winter Olympics, the Indian player finished 72nd and he needs a score of 140 points or below in five races to qualify for the Winter Games which will organize in Pyeongchang from February 9 to 29. Himanshu has got the required score in four races but the 24-year-old needs to record 140 or less in one more race before the January 21 cut-off date.