Sports
Ashish, Saraswoti complete sprint double
Having already won the 100m titles, Ashish Chaudhary of Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club and Saraswoti Chaudhary of Tribhuvan Army Club on Saturday both completed sprint double by securing the 200m gold medal as well during the eighth National Games at the Beljhundi Stadium.Having already won the 100m titles, Ashish Chaudhary of Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club and Saraswoti Chaudhary of Tribhuvan Army Club on Saturday both completed sprint double by securing the 200m gold medal as well during the eighth National Games at the Beljhundi Stadium.
Ashish clocked 21.83 seconds to win the 200m gold ahead of Abhishek Chaudhary (22.46) of Army and Prakash Rana Magar (22.51) of Province 4. Tilakram Tharu holds the national record in the distance at 21.50.
Saraswoti prevailed over the same two athletes—Jayarani Chaudhary and Krishna Chaudhary—who she beat in the 100m race as well. Saraswoti clocked 26.26 to win the 200m gold leaving Jayarani of Province 5 yet again in second place with the timings of 26.36 and Army clubmate Krishna in third with the timings of 26.65.
Saraswoti was happy to have achieved her goals in the National Games. She said: “I had my eyes firmly set on the sprint double. Achieving that goal is really satisfying.” Saraswoti said now she will be working towards achieving another goal in future: to break the national record in the distance. Devi Maya Paneru holds the women’s 200m national record at 25.00, which she had set during the eighth South Asian Games in 1999.
Shila Chaudhary of APF claimed the women’s high jump gold medal by clearing the 1.5-metre bar. Khagita Sinjali of the Army club was restricted to silver with 1.48m jump. Bindra Chaudhary of Province 1 and Anita Chaudhary of Province 5 shared the bronze with an identical 1.35m jump.
Surya Bahadur Khatri of Army team clinched the men’s high jump gold medal. Khatri cleared 1.85m bat to win the title which was far behind his own national record of 1.98m which he had set four years ago. Gopal Chaudhary of Nepal Police Club (NPC) won silver by clearing 1.75m bar pushing Bikash Khand of Province 3 to bronze position. Khand cleared 1.70m.
Normally all the field events are played within the athletics track but the high jump had to be shifted to nearby open space due to poor management of the organisers. High jump requires at least 20 metres radius which was not available inside the track. “I had clearly told the requirements but the contractor assigned to prepare the area made it really short,” said chief coach Chandra Gurung.
Chitra Bahadur Oli handed the Army club another gold medals in men’s discus throw. Oli was a runaway champion with a throw of 38.02-metre. His nearest rival Puskal Khadka, who has also won shot put silver, finished in second place with a throw of 33.50m. Ranjit Shrestha of Province 1 bagged the bronze medal with a throw of 33.50m. The 400m, 5,000m, hurdles, triple jump and relay events have been scheduled for Sunday.
Badminton
Dipesh Dhami of APF and Rashila Maharjan of Army ended the stranglehold of Tamang siblings—Ratnajit and Nangshal Devi—in badminton winning the singles events at the Ghorahi covered hall in Dang on Saturday.
Dhami registered a 21-16, 21-14 win over Ratnajit in the men’s singles final, denying the Army shuttler the fifth consecutive national championship. Ratnajit had claimed back-to-back national titles since 2013 when he dethroned then Nepal No 1 Bikash Shrestha during the 36th National Championships. Ratnajit had never lost the title ever since. The badminton champions at the eighth National Games also serves as the 40th edition of the national badminton meet organised by Nepal Badminton Association.
Maharjan rallied from a set down to beat Nangshal 19-21, 21-14, 24-22. The-14-year old also became the youngest national champion. The ninth-grader had started playing badminton six years ago while she was a fourth grader. Both Dhami and Maharjan were also the winners of recently concluded Krishna Mohan Memorial National Championships organised the APF Club.
Taekwondo
Kamal Shrestha of Nepal Police Club struck triple gold medal in taekwondo tournament in Bhairahawa on Saturday.
Shrestha won the gold medals in all poomsae events: individual, doubles and men’s team event. After winning the singles, Kamal joined forces with Parbati Gurung to claim the doubles title before completing the treble teaming up with Jit Bahadur Bot and Prem Bahadur Limbu for team event title. NPC claimed a total of four poomsae. Parbati won the another gold for NPC in women’s individual poomsae.
Province 1 clinched the women’s team event gold. On Friday, Gyanendra Hamal of Army struck men’s 58kg division gold while Nima Gurung won the women’s 53kg category title.