As Nepal finally broke the medal drought a the 18th Asian Games winning a silver in the men’s team Cross Country Paragliding on Wednesday, judo team failed to live up to hype in Jakarta.

Judokas Indra Bahadur Shrestha and Devika Khadka lost their opening rounds bouts going down with identical scores 10-0. While Nepal have already rounded up campaign in boxing, taekwondo and karate without any medal, they are pinned hopes on judo for more success. However, both the judokas failed to even open their scoring. Both judokas conceded ippon, the highest number of points in judo, to eventually lose the match.

In the women’s 52kg division, Khadka lost to Natsumi Tsunoda of Japan. Khadka not only conceded ippon but also committed three sido (negative points) against the Japanese. Natasumi Tsunoda of Japan claimed gold, Dasol Park of Korea bagged silver while Kachakorn Warasiha of Thailand and Song Sim Rim of North Korea finished with joint bronze medals.

Shrestha, who competed in the men’s U-66kg weight division, went down 10-0 against Kim Hyong Un of North Korea. Baul An of South Korea claimed gold, Maruyama Joshiro of Japan silver and Zhumakanov Yeldos of Kazakhstan and Artur Te of Kyrgyzstan were the joint bronze medal winners.

Nepal’s Sanjit Dangol is scheduled to play against Hamad Sulaiman Fahada of Saudi Arabia in the men’s U-73kg category on Thursday. Manita Shrestha Pradhan will fight against Thi Bich Ngoc Nguyen of Vientam in the women’s U-57 kg and Phupu Lhamu Khatri will take on Ardelia Yuli Fradivtha of Indonesia in the women’s U-63kg division. Sri Ram Makaju (U-90kg), Rabin Shrestha (U-100kg) and Punam Shrestha (U-78kg) are the other judokas from the eight-member Nepali judo team.

Table Tennis

Both of the Nepali mixed doubles teams crashed out of the round-of-32 table tennis tournament after winning their first round matches on Wednesday. Nepal No 1 pair Nabita Shrestha and Santoo Shrestha went down 3-1 against Chinese opponents. Swechchha Nembang and Amar Lal Malla also lost 3-0 to Hong Kong in the round-of-32. In the first round matches, Shrestha duo beat T Myandal and U Munkhbat of Mongolia 13-11, 11-7, 11-9. In the round-of-32 contest, the duo went down 11-6, 11-1, 13-11, 11-7 to Chinese pair Lin Gaoyuan and Wang Manyu.

Nembang and Malla teamed up to beat Qatar’s Abdul Rahman Al Naggar and Maha Faramarzi 3-2. They recovered from two sets down to win 8-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-4 in the round-of-64. In the next round, they lost 11-4, 11-3, 11-1 to Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem Hong Kong.   

Sepaktakraw

Nepal went down 2-0 against Singapore in their Group ‘B’ match of men’s quadrant of sepaktakraw on Wednesday. Nepal also lost 2-o to Vietnam on Tuesday. The Nepali team consisting of Rupesh Sunar, Dipesh Jung Thapa, Govinda Magar, Sanjeet Dhimal and Rabin Bhattarai are yet to play against Pakistan and Iran, which is scheduled for Thursday.