Sports
Nepal narrowly miss medal
Nepal narrowly missed out on ending their medal drought on the eighth day of the Asian Games after two karatekas faltered in their bronze medal match in the Indonesian capital on Saturday.Nepal narrowly missed out on ending their medal drought on the eighth day of the Asian Games after two karatekas faltered in their bronze medal match in the Indonesian capital on Saturday.
Rita Karki and Chanchala Dunuwar were in touching distance to claim medal which could have avoided humiliation for the Nepali contingent. Karki, who competed in women’s above 68kg clash, lost 3-1 against Nargis of Pakistan in a repechage fight. Karki was beaten 3-0 by China’s Gao Mengmeng 3-0 in her very first bout, the quarter-final clash. In the semi-final, Mengmeng overcome Nagris to book place in the final paving Karki a chance to fight against the Pakistani player.
Nargis was hammered 8-0 by the Chinese player, a result that raised the eyebrows for Nepal. But Nargis came as a better opponent against Karki to make sure she was not returning empty handed. In the bout, Karki scored an early yuko (single point). But Nargis fought back strong. She earned second bronze for Pakistan whose only medal so far had come from kabaddi.
In the women’s individual kata, Dunuwar failed to emulate Bimala Tamang who had claimed the only bronze for Nepal in the 2014 Incheon Asiad through kata. Nepal’s hope of medal ended after Dunuwar lost her match against Thai opponent Monsicha Tararattanakul 5-0 in the bronze medal contest. The Thai player is also an Asian Championship bronze medallist. Despite losing her first kata 5-0 against Macau’s Soi Lam Sau, Dunuwar got chance to vie in the repechage after Sau made it to the final.
Sau had defeated Tararattanakul in the semifinal. In the repechage, Dunuwar defeated North Korea’s Kang Ji Ui to confirm meeting against Thailand’s Tararattanakul. Karate coach Dipak Shrestha said they wasted the chance due to lack of match exposure. “Both the players – Karki and Dunwar – were playing their first international match. Even the Pakistani player had international exposure and that made the difference,” he said.
In the men’s kata, Purusottam Bastola lost 5-0 against Qatar’s Adham Hashem in the first round. Besides kata, Nepali players will vie in five kumite weight categories.
Badminton
Nepal’s badminton campaign at the Asiad ended in pre-quarterfinals after losing both of their matches at the GBK Istora in Jakarta on Saturday. Nepal’s no 1 female shuttler Nangsal Devi lost her women’s singles match against Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi 21-7, 21-12. In the men’s doubles matches, Nepal’s Shrestha duo Bikash and Nabin also lost in straight sets losing 21-9, 21-12 to Wee Kiong Tan and V Shem Goh of Malaysia.
Athletics
Nepal’s long-distance runners Krishna Bahadur Basnet and Gopi Chandra Parki failed to complete men’s marathon. Basnet pulled out after completing 40kms and Parki withdrew after running 30kms. Only 15 out of 21 runners completed the 42.195km race. Basnet had taken 2 hours 23 minute 13 second to run the 40km distance and was at the 12th spot before pulling out. Basnet has his personal best timing of 2:21.31 hours. Parki raced until 30km and had taken 1:51.20 hours. Parki’s person best timing is 2:21.04 hours.
Both the runners pulled out citing muscle problems in the humid atmosphere in Jakarta. Due to the difficult running conditions gold winner Hiroto Inoue of Japan also finished the race more than 12 minutes behind his personal best. He clocked 2:18.22 hours to complete, way behind his personal best timing of 2:06.54 hours. Elhassan Elabbassi of Bahrain was a fraction of second behind the Japanese, while China’s Bujie Duo took silver in 2:18.48 hours.
In the men’s 100m sprint, runner Yam Sajan Sunar crashed out from the heats. He finished at the bottom in heat 3 among seven players taking 11.39 seconds to finish the race. Among total 35 sprinters in the heats, he finished second from bottom. He failed to meet his own national record of 10.3 seconds. He was only ahead of Afghani runner Abdul Wahab Zahiri. Yang Chunhan of Chinese Taipei who competed in heat 2 finished with the best timing of 10.13 seconds.
Archery
Nepal ended their archery campaign after losing in the pre-quarterfinal of men’s team recurve. Although Nepal defeated Qatar 6-0 in the round-of-32, lost with the same scorelines against Chinese Taipei. Nepali team comprised of Asim Sherchan, Min Prasad Gauchan, Roshan Nagarkoti and Tilak Pun Magar.
Sports Climbing
Nepal’s Pemba Sherpa finished 19th and Pranil Man Shrestha 20th in the men’s combined lead of sports climbing in Palembang. They finished ahead of climbers from Mongolia, Philippines and Thailand. Japanese climbers secured top two positions. It was the first occasion that sports climbing was included in the Asiad.
Paragliding
Medal hopeful paragliding made a satisfactory start in the men’s team cross country securing third place at the end of first rounds. The women’s team is sitting fourth. The men’s team added 2255 points while leaders Indonesia have 2917 points and second-placed South Korea have 2500 points. Japan stands fourth with 2024 points. The men’s team comprised of Bimal Adhikari, Bijay Gautam, Sushil Gurung, Yukesh Gurung and Bishal Thapa.
Nepal’s women team of Prativa Bhujel, Trisha Shrestha Bomjan and Sabita Tamang are in fourth spot with 285 points.
South Korea (1036), Japan (644) and hosts Indonesia (479) occupy top three positions. Fifth-placed Malaysia have 202 points. In the team cross country, the point is determined after deducting the points earned by weakest member of the team once each member takes the flight. The event will be played over five rounds and will finish on Wednesday.
Boxing
All three Nepali pugilists lost their bouts on the basis of points in Jakarta on Saturday. In the women’s 60kg division, Punam Rawal lost to China’s Yamg Wenlu 5-0 in the round-of-32. Tej Bahadur Deuja lost to Laos’ Khamsathone Khamphouvanh 3-1, also in the round-of-32. The men’s 64-kg-division saw Bhupendra Thapa losing 4-0 to Alkasbeh Obada of Jordan. Among eight Nepali boxers, four have already lost their matches and four are yet to play.
Sepaktakraw
Nepal lost both matches of the day in the men’s regu. Nepal suffered identical 2-0 defeats to South Korea and Malaysia in Group ‘B’. India and China are the other teams of the group. The other group round matches will be played on Sunday.