Nepal Police Club (NPC) duo Syantu Shrestha and Nabita Shrestha claimed the singles titles of the National Table Tennis Championships under the National Sports Council (NSC) Championships on Saturday. 

On a day of lopsided finals, Syantu registered straight set 11-5, 11-4, 11-9, 11-9 victory over Binesh Khaniya of the same departmental team to claim the national crown for the second time in a row. Purushottam Bajarcharya of Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club and Pradip Roka of Police were joint third finishers. 

Nabita, meanwhile, continued her domination in the women’s table tennis easing past her sister-in-law Elina Maharjan — also of NPC — 12-10, 11-1, 11-2, 12-10. It was seventh consecutive national championships title for Nabita. Saturday’s final victory at the National Table Tennis Training Centre in Lainchaur has also taken her closer to emulate former South Asian Games (SAG) gold medalist Sijarin Shah’s record of eight national crown in a row. Rabina Maharjan and Dikshya Tamang of Tribhvuan Army Club (TAC) were the losing semi-finalists. 

Chandan Shahi and Swechchha Nembang’s pair of TAC won the mixed doubles edging past APF pair of Amarlal Malla and Selisa Khadgi 11-6, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9. The mixed doubles event is the only gold that NPC failed to win in the tournament which had seven gold medals up for grabs. Purusottam Maharjan and Shikka Suwal of APF along with Syantu and Elina finished joint third. 

On Friday, Syantu and Deep Saun’s pair secured men’s doubles title while Nabita and Elina had won the women’s doubles titles for NPC who also walked away with the team event title. The five-day event featured 235 players from 40 teams including 37 districts and three departmental teams. National Sports Council member secretary Keshab Kumar Bista distributed the prizes to the winners.

Ghorsaini, Rana take 10 air pistol top spot

At the Satdobato Shooting Range in Lalitpur, Krishna Ghorasaini of TAC and Olympian Sneha Rajya Laxmi Rana of Western Region won the men’s and women’s 10m air rifle in the National Shooting Championships on Saturday. Both shooters accumulated 226 points out of 240 to win gold medals. Suresh Chaudhary of Army won silver with 224 points in men’s category and Pawan Ghimire of Mid-west stood third with 204 points. In the women’s section Sindhuja Basnet (224 points) of Central Region took silver and Kalpana Pariyar of NPC won bronze with 202 points. 

The men’s 10m air pistol saw Bishwa Kumar Bishwa Magar of Army finish first with 158 points. Suman Tuladhar (157 points) of Central and Kuber KC (155 points) of Army took silver and bronze respectively. In the women’s category of the event, Sima Tuladhar of NPC, Shreya KC of Western Region and Sarita Basnet of Army secured top three finishes respectively. On Friday, Army had bagged three gold and Central one gold in team events.

Maharjan, Magar win gold in cycling

Narayan Gopal Maharjan of Kathmandu and Laxmi Magar of Nuwakot won the National Mountain Bike Championship held in Hattiban, Pharping. Maharjan won the men’s elite category completing the 24km race in two hours 10 minutes and 31 seconds. Maharjan had pushed back TAC duo of Okesh Raj Bajracharya who timed 2:12:01 and Pratap Thapa who completed the course in 2:12:23. The men’s event saw 32 participants. Magar won the gold in 1:52:18 and on her way defeated Manju Kumari Khadka of TAC and Roja KC of Kathmandu. Khadka timed 2:00:39 and KC timed 2:03:03. There were 11 participants in the women’s elite category.