Sports
Athletics election postponed
Nepal Athletics Association (NAA) election scheduled for Tuesday was postponed after a directive from National Sports Council (NSC) who asked the athletics body to conduct their poll only after Asian Games slated for August 18 to September 2 in Indonesia.KATHMANDU,
Nepal Athletics Association (NAA) election scheduled for Tuesday was postponed after a directive from National Sports Council (NSC) who asked the athletics body to conduct their poll only after Asian Games slated for August 18 to September 2 in Indonesia.
President Rajeev Bikram Shah said the executive committee meeting of the NAA on June 6 had fixed the election on August 14 (today) in Sauraha, Chitwan. “We had completed all the preparations for election including formation of the 37 of the 39 district associations affiliated with us. But we had to postpone the election for September 22 as per the directive from the sports governing body,” said Shah.
“The country is currently focused on the Asian Games and we dully agreed to put off our election. The election will be held under the watchful eyes of IAFF, the international governing body of athletics,” said Shah. Shah also said athletics was badly hit after the Dashrath Stadium was damaged by April 2015 earthquake. “Even the synthetic track was badly damaged and the stadium is currently under renovation. Due to lack of training venues we had send athletics’ players to Kolkata for a month-long training to prepare for Asiad and the upcoming South Asian Games,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NAA bade farewell to a six-member Nepali athletics team—four male and two female players—competing in the Asian Games. Yam Sajan Sunar is competing in men’s 100m and 200m and Som Bahadur Kumal in the men’s 800m. Gopi Chandra Parki and Krishna Basnet are contesting in men’s marathon. Saraswati Bhattarai and Bishwa Rupa Budha are the female athletes vying in the Asian Games. Bhattarai will compete in 800m and 1,500m while Budha will vie in 5,000m and 10,000m. Amiri Prasad Yadav is the coach and Shanti Singh the manager.