Gaurika Singh posed herself as a future swimming star of the country with a historic silver medal as Nepal’s search for more gold in their 12th South Asian Games campaign in India continued.

On a day when wushu players fought for six gold medals but ended up with silver in all the events, 13-year old Singh once again fared better than expected, winning Nepal’s first silver in swimming’s 32-year SA Games history.

Wushu player Jharna Gurung signed off from her last bout of career with a silver medal, while Bindu Pun Magar, Hari Prasad Gole, Sabita Rai, Junu Rai and Rajesh Chaudhary also lost their respective finals to get silver in the discipline. Nepal didn’t have a great day in the track and field, while the men’s football team prepared for their Thursday’s match against Bangladesh.

Nangsal Tamang was restricted to third in the women’s badminton singles event, while Nepal took a bronze in the women’s team events of squash.

Teen-aged Singh stands tall

Nepali swimming had headed for Guwahati with no individual medal in the discipline. But 13-year old Singh broke the duck in a grand fashion with a silver in the women’s 200m individual medley. Her silver is preceded by the first three bronze medals she won for Nepal.

Singh also became the first Nepali player to win four medals in different events of a single discipline. Singh lives with her family in London where she has been training under renowned coach Rhys Gormley at the Barnet Copthall Swimming Club.    

At the Zakir Hussain Aquatics Complex in Guwahati, Singh timed 2:33.26 ,missing out on gold by 2.08 seconds. Singh also improved her own record in the event by a huge margin. She had held the record of 2:53.57 in the 19th National Swimming Championship in 2014. India’s Shraddha Sudhir took gold in 2:31.18 and Uthama Silva (2:40.07) of Sri Lanka silver. Singh’s bronze medals came in 400m freestyle, 100m and 200m backstroke. She had also won bronze with new national records.

Other two Nepali swimmers—Sirish Gurung and Sofia Shah failed in their events on Wednesday. Gurung finished sixth in the eight-man 200m IM final, clocking 2:28.20 in an event where Sri Lanka’s Matthew Abeysinghe (2:09.63) won gold and Sanu Debnath (2:11.65) of India claimed silver.

Shah finished fifth in 100m freestyle in 1:02.10. Kimiko Raheem of Sri Lanka bagged gold in 57.20 ahead of her compatriot Machiko Raheem (59.64). Nepal also finished fifth in the 4x100m IM relay in 4:46.70. India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh had gold, silver and bronze respectively.

Gurung retires

The 28-year old Jharna Gurung from Pokhara bid farewell to her international career after finishing second in women’s 52kg sansau. Gurung was outplayed by Yumnam Sanathoi Devi of India 2-0. Gurung’s silver medal was the big achievement in her seven-year playing career. She had won bronze medals in the eighth International Wushu Championships in Vietnam and first Asian Martial Arts Games in Bangkok. She was also restricted to bronze in the 2010 11th SA Games in Dhaka.

Gole and Sabita won the taiji quan allround silver medals in taulo. Gole earned 17.62 points to finish second behind Gyan Das Singh of India who earned 18.53 points. Md Rahmatullah of Kishor got bronze collecting 16.81 points.

Sabita missed the gold after India’s L Saratombi Sanu got 18.62 points against 17.70. Komal Emmanuel of Pakistan had bronze with 14.16 points. Pun Magar (70kg), Chaudhary (55kg) and Junu (60kg) lost their respective final bouts to finish second.

Bronze assured in Squash

Nepal confirmed a bronze in the women’s squash team events despite losing all their matches in the round-robin league participated in by four countries. Nepali team consisting of Bhawana Sunwar, Krishna Thapa and Bipana Blon had lost to India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan 2-0 in the league stages.

Tamang strikes bronze

Nangsal Devi Tamang lost to Rubika of India in straight sets 21-12, 21-7 in the women’s singles semi-final match. It is Nepal’s second individual medal in SA Games badminton after Sumina Shrestha won a bronze in the 2006 10th SA Games in Sri Lanka.

Nepal had also struck a bronze medal in the women’s team events. Tamang was

the part of that team along with her sister Sara Devi, Amita Giri, Shikshya Shrestha, Jessica Gurung, Megha Chand and Anu Maya Rai.

Athletics fail to add medal

Nepal failed to add any medal on the second day of athletics. Hari Rimal had won the first medal (bronze) in the men’s 5,000m on Tuesday but the discipline went medalless on Wednesday. Keshari Chaudhary finished fifth in the women’s triple jump with a leap of 11.99m and Shila Chaudhary finished seventh with 11.53. Mayookha Johny of India clinched gold with a jump of 13.89m.

Shila finished fifth in the women’s high jump final with 1.55m and Dhirendra Jung Shah was seventh in the men’s javelin throw with 56.55m. India and Sri Lanka made top two finishes in both events. Bishesh   timed 16.26 in the 110m hurdles to finish at the bottom of the nine-man field. India claimed both gold and silver.