The South Asian Olympic Council on Sunday decided to exclude karate from the upcoming 12th South Asian Games, in a move that is expected to deal a huge blow to Nepal who have largely depended on the discipline in their overall better showing.

India are hosting the 12th edition of the regional sporting extravaganza which will be held in Guwahati and Shillong in February next year. The meeting also made public the 23 sports disciplines included for the Games with cricket and golf also facing exclusion. Tennis, kho kho and triathlon have become the new entrants.

Nepal, often tipped minnows in the Games until taekwondo and karate were introduced in the 1999 SA Games in Kathmandu, have been relying heavily in martial arts disciplines to strongly show their presence in the medal tally. However, Sunday’s move to exclude karate has dealt them a huge blow. Earlier, Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) had urged the Council to include karate along with other games that have possibilities of development in the country.

Karate has been the second best sports discipline for Nepal after taekwondo having won 20 gold medals following its inclusion in 1999. Taekwondo has claimed 24 gold medals so far. When Nepal finished second in the 1999 Games medal tally, karate and taekwondo had brought 28 gold medals out of 31. It is still Nepal’s best ever finish in Games’ 31-year long history.

Nepal have not missed out on gold medal from karate in the last four editions, three gold came in the previous edition held in Dhaka.

“We repeatedly urged the council meeting to include karate but India disagreed. India have three to four parallel karate governing bodies and we had to reluctantly agree upon excluding the sport considering their complex problems,” NOC President Jeevan Ram Shrestha said from Chennai.

The move has left the players and coaches dejected. “Since there are high possibilities of winning gold medals in SAG, it is like an Olympics to us. There will be a huge difference in our medal standings after the exclusion,” said karate national team coach Deepak Shrestha, who himself had won gold for Nepal in the eighth and ninth editions.

Meanwhile, the Council has also decided to hold all the sports disciplines in both the men and women’s category. The Council had earlier worked on including 22 disciplines but ended up adding tennis as the 23rd.