Fighting in the men’s 56kg weight division, Rai lost to Mario Fernando of Philippines with an identical 9-10 scores in all three rounds. President of Nepal Boxing Association Rajeev Shrestha said Rai lost his bout due to his defensive approach. “As the opponent was very strong we had asked him to play defensive but not to that extent,” said Shrestha.

As the Nepali players’ dismal showing continued, archer Jit Bahadur Moktan embraced a rare win on Friday. Competing in the round of 32 men’s recurve individual, Moktan beat Ahamed Alsati of Kuwait 6-0. The joy, however, did not last long as Moktan was eventually ousted by Wen Cheng Ku of Chinese Taipei in the round of 16.

In the same event another archer Ramesh Bhattachan went down 6-2 against Sami Sab Alwarbadi of Saudi Arabia. In the recurve men’s team event, Nepal fell 5-1 to Malaysia. The women’s team lost 6-0 to Chinese Taipei. In the women’s recurve individual’s round of 16 Ayesha Tamang suffered a 6-0 loss against Cheng Ming of China while Monika Rana Magar went down against Ju Sang of China with same scoreline.

Apart from Moktan, none of the other Nepali players across multiple disciplines was able to taste a win. Swimmers and tennis players rounded up their participation following the suit of wushu and badminton players. Women’s basketball team is certain to return home early after suffering a 28-104 loss in their penultimate league match against Hong Kong. They play Mongolia in the next league game on Saturday.

The Nepali women hoopsters had opened with a 35-106 defeat against Kazakhstan before earning three full points on Thursday after their Qatari opponents withdrew in protest over hijab ban. President of Nepal Basketball Association Lama Tendi Sherpa said the women’s team did not perform as expected. “But I believe they played with great courage considering that they had very little international exposure. We should stop finding faults and praise their efforts,” said Sherpa.

Medal had never been in the sights for the Nepali swimmer but they were at least expecting to better their timings here. However, apart from Sirish Gurung who bettered his 200m freestyle national record on September 21e, none of the other Nepali swimmers could make any impression. Sofia Shah finished seventh in the 50m freestyle heats with the timing of 31:72 on Friday. Shah blamed poor health for her mediocre performance. “I was not fully fit since last month and could not swim well,” said Shah.

In the men’s 105kg division, weightlifter Gopal Bahadur Shrestha finished last. Bahadur lifted a total of 264kg — 150kg in clean & jerk and 114 in snatch. Tara Devi Pun ended up last in the preliminary round of the women’s 75kg weight group. Pun managed 161kg — 67kg in snatch and 94kg in clean & jerk.

Tennis players completed the formality of participation as none of the players able to put any sort of fight, let alone win a single set. Most players were embarassingly double-bagled during the course of singles, doubles and team event games. In the last match on Friday, Bijisha Shrestha and Ira Raut yet again lost 6-0, 6-0 to Uzbekistan.

In golf, Tanka Bahadur Karki finished 37th after carding a second round one-over 73 for a total of six-over 150. Other golfers Tashi Tshering (152), Bishnu Prasad Sharma (154) and Dinesh Prajapati also did not fare well. In the team event, Nepal fell to 11th place. Nepal will compete in athletics, table tennis and women’s boxing on Saturday.