Chandra Kala Lamgade of Nepal Police Club (NPC) set women’s national record in shot put on the first day of athletics tournament held under eighth National Games at the Beljhundi Stadium in Dang on Thursday.

Lamgade hurled 12.04m to better her own mark of 11.56m set a year earlier during qualifier for national team preparations. She will get an additional Rs 25,000 award for setting the national record apart from Rs 15,000 for winning gold. Sangita Adhikari of Province 5 took silver with a hurl of 10.56 while Basanti Chaudhary of Nepal APF Club took bronze with a throw of 10.05m. Altogether 18 players competed in shot put.   

Ashis Chaudhary of APF claimed the men’s 100m gold while Saraswati Chaudhary of Tribhuvan Army Club clinched the women’s 100m gold. Ashis clocked 11 seconds to finish ahead of national record holder Yamsajan Sunar of Province 6. Sunar holds 10.3 second (hand-timing) national record. Ananda Dev Chaudhary walked away with bronze clocking 11.15 seconds.

The women’s 100m race saw Chaudhary trio claim top three spots. Saraswati clocked 12.19 to secure the gold to match the 20-year old national record held by Devi Maya Paneru. Paneru had set the national record during the eighth South Asian Games in Kathmandu in 1999. Jayarani Chaudhary (12.39) of Province 5 and Krishna Chaudhary (12.52) of Army finished completed the podium finish.

“I have achieved my goals of putting in my best performance. I am happy for that,” sais Saraswati who had her previous best timing of 12.40 seconds. Saraswati, who hails from Bardiya, is enrolled by Army club for the last one year. Though she failed to play the seventh National Games due to injuries two years ago, Saraswati had claimed gold medals during NSC Championship last year in Pokhara. She is yet to compete in 200m sprint and relay. “I hope to win both my remaining races,” said Saraswati adding that she did not felt any discomfort running in the newly-laid track.

Bishwarupa Budha and Tek Prasad Dahal were the other athletes to add gold medals for Army. Budha claimed the women’s 10,000m gold and Dahal won the men’s shot put title. Budha clocked 37:30.89 to complete the 25-lap race and finish ahead of Rajpura Pachai (37:30.92). Santoshi Shrestha of Province 3 bagged bronze in 37:50.53. Pushpa Bhandari of APF and Dol Maya Mahato of Gandaki Province finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Dahal hurled 12.19-metre to bag the men’s shot put gold. Puskal Khadka (12.04m) of NPC and Chitra Bahadur Oli (11.85m) of Army secured silver and bronze medals.

Karnali Province ended the gold drought after Durga Budha claimed the men’s 10,000m title, completing the distance in 31:03.06. Anish Thapa of Gandaki Province took silver in 31:09.71 minute coming ahead of national record-holder Gopi Chandra Parki of APF, who clocked 31:58.3. Parki holds national record of 30:99 minutes set during Incheon Asian Games in 2014.     

Budha said that he was happy for the achievement despite playing in a different weather condition including the untested synthetic track. “It could probably been difficult had the event been held in Nepalgunj. I could have achieved even better timing if the event was held in early morning,” said Budha who had finished second in 10,000m and third in 5,000m during fifth the National Games in 2009. He did not compete in the sixth and seventh National Games in a bid to pursue career in ultra race.

Parki, the third-place finisher, had lodged complaint to athletics jury committee about Budha and Thapa. He had suspected about the district and regional qualification process about the duo. Gandaki Province have also filed complaint expressing dissatisfaction towards the results.

Badminton

Sita Rai of Province 1 stunned third-seeded Shova Gauchan of APF to enter the women’s singles badminton semi-finals in Ghorahi, Dang, on Thursday. The 11th seed Rai overcame Gauchan 21-17, 21-15 to set up semi-final clash with Nepal No 1 Nangsal Devi Tamang of Army, who edged her teammate Ranjana Bhatta 21-18, 21-12. Anumaya Rai of Army saw off Jessica Gurung of APF 21-16, 21-9 and next plays clubmate Rashila Maharjan. Maharjan dispatched Sima Rajbanshi of Province 1 21-14, 21-11.

Nepal No 1 Ratnajeet Tamang defeated Jeevan Acharya of NPC 21-10, 21-11 to storm into the men’s singles semi-finals. Tamang will meet Prince Dahal of Province 1, who beat Praful Maharjan of Army 21-10, 21-10. Former national champion Bikash Shrestha of Province 1 and Dipesh Dhami of Sudhurpaschim also made it to the semi-finals. Bikash beat Nabin Shrestha of Army 21-15, 15-21, 21-16 while Dhami eased past Dipak Bohara of NPC 21-17, 21-15.     

Football

NPC defeated Sudhurpaschim Province 3-0 in the men’s football at the ANFA Academy ground in Debinagar, Butwal, on Thursday. Bharat Shah, Rabi Paswan and Santosh Hemran were on targets for NPC, who played with numerical advantage for more than an hour after Sudhurpaschim goalie Tikendra Thapa was sent off in the 25th minute. He was sent off for intentionally handling the ball. Shah broke the deadlock in the 36th minute and Paswan doubled their lead on the hour mark. Hemran sealed the victory with stoppage time goal.

The other match between Karnali and Province 2 ended in a 4-4 draw. Bhupendra Shahi struck twice for Karnali while Khagendra Khatri and Suraj Shahi added one each. Sunil Raut Kurmi, Nir Bahadur Ale, Sunil Kumar Raut and Ganga Bahadur Ale were on targets for Karnali.

In the women’s football played in Ghorahi, Province 2 defeated Province 5 3-1. Rajani Thoka, Dil Kumari Rana Magar and Sajani Thokar scored for Province 2 while Mamata Pun replied for Province 5. In another match, Province 3 edged Sudhur-paschim 2-0 at the Beljhundi Stadium. Manisha Thapa Magar scored both the goals

Handball

Army registered double win in handball that kicked off in Nepalgunj on Thursday. The men’s handball team defeated Province 5 42-17 while Gandaki thrashed Karnali 40-15. In the women’s event, Army thumped Province 3 33-4 while Province 5 edged Karnali 10-7. The event features nine teams in total including seven provincial teams apart from APF and Army.

(Ghanashyam Gautam in Butwal and Durgalal KC in Dang contributed to this report)