Medalists honored with cash prizes

KATHMANDU, Nov 10: The Ministry of Youth and Sports (MoYS) and the National Sports Council (NSC) on Sunday gave away cash prizes of Rs 4.43 million to international medal winners of four different games at the NSC premises in Tripureshwar.



A total of 18 players from karate, two from triathlon and one para-athlete were awarded cash prizes for winning medals at the international level between May 2012 and June 2013. Minister for Youth and Sports Ram Kumar Shrestha distributed the cash prizes. [break]



All the rewarded karatekas had won medals during the 13th Asia Pacific Shitoryu Karate Championship held in Hong Kong from December 12-16. The gold medalists of individual events were given Rs 500,000 each, silver medalists Rs 250,000 each and bronze medalists Rs 125,000 each. Similarly, the silver and bronze medalists of team events were awarded Rs 65,000 and Rs 35,000 respectively.



Karate gold medalist Sunil Lama (men´s kumite 55 kg) and Ganga Devi Adhikari (women´s kumite above-61 kg), and tri-athletes Tikaram Thapa and Rajiv Gurung received Rs 500,000 each. Thapa had won gold at the Chizbu ITU Tremium Asian Cup Triathlon in China in May 2012 and Gurung at the Subic Bay ASTC Asian Triathlon in the Philippines in April 2013.



Karateka Lama, a member of the men´s team kumite that won silver, received an additional Rs 65,000 while Adhikari, a member of women´s team kumite that won bronze, was given an additional Rs 35,000.



Silver medalists of 60 kg and team kumite received Rs 315,000. Similarly, Yadav Kunwar, silver medalist at the Fourth WTF World Para Taekwondo Championship (Switzerland), got Rs 250,000.



Woman karateka Adhikari said that the players feel proud to receive such prizes and that such rewards would motivate players to do better in future.



Triathlon gold medalist Gurung lauded NSC Member Secretary Yuvaraj Lama´s leadership in the sports governing body. "These types of programs prove that players could earn their living through sports," Gurung said.



Speaking on the occasion, Minister Shrestha said that the powers of the member secretary must be delegated for speedy development of sports and that the MoYS has already started the process in this regard.

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