As usual Nepal’s campaign at the Olympics was confined to participation alone as two of the country’s athletes returned with personal milestones.

Nepal never ever had medal expectations since it usually relies on wild card entries to participate in the Games. Only two Nepali players—former taekwondo players Sangina Baidhya and Deepak Bista—have so far earned their places in the Games through qualification.

Nepal fielded seven players in five disciplines for Rio Games. Gaurika Singh became the youngest participant which drew a global media attention, but the 13-year old swimmer was unable to overcome her personal best in 100m backstroke. Another swimmer Sirish Gurung and middle distance runner Saraswoti Bhattarai managed to set new national records. Taekwondo player Nisha Rawal and judoka Phupu Lhamu Khatri put a brave performance against world’s best athletes.

Archer Jit Bahadur Pun crashed out of the round of 64 in his individual recurve event and Hari Kumar Rimal was way behind his personal best in 5,000m race.

Given the gulf between Nepali athletes and their world class opponents, Nepal’s performance got a warm response from the officials at home. “There were a few disappointments but the way some performed was quite satisfactory,” said chief athletics coach Sushil Narsingh Rana.

“It all comes down to how we prepare for the Olympics. We always have a very short-term preparations. Earning qualification directly has been a rare phenomenon for us. Playing against world’s best through wild card in itself is a big pressure. We need to have a new approach while participating in the Olympics,” said Rana adding Nepal need to see Olympics as an event to prepare for regional meet like Asian and South Asian Games.

“We had a national record in swimming and athletics. Judo and taekwondo did well too. Now we need to improvise on those performance to make sure we come up with even better showing in Asian and South Asian Games,” Rana added.

Nepal’s performance was especially satisfactory in martial arts after Khatri became the only Nepali judoka to remain in the mat for full four minutes in Olympics history in an 11-0 loss to Cuba. Rawal put a brave performance in a slim 2-0 loss against Chinese world No 1 Shuyin Zheng. She later lost 4-3 to French player Gwladys Epangue in the repechage quarter-finals.

“We were competing against the world’s best and I can see satisfaction in how we fared. Two of our players set personal milestones and the way our martial arts players performed was praiseworthy,” said National Sports Council Member Secretary Keshav Kumar Bista.

Bista believed Nepal needs to change its approach towards the Olympics. “We have been heading towards big events with short preparations  . We need to make a plan under which we can keep our athletes busy throughout the year.”