After facing one after another upsetting results, Nepal got a chance for sigh of relief as Binita won the gold in wushu. Binita achieved the glory from thaulo´s taichi chhwan event held in Sylhet, a city 300 km away from Dhaka. [break]
Binita scored 8.85 points during her performance. Indian Santogi Sahnu scored 8.55 and remained behind Binita.
Binita, 21, had started her wushu career 10 years ago. The local girl from Basantapur, Kathmandu was playing her second international tournament in Sylhet. Earlier, she had played the SAF Wushu Championship 2008 in Dhaka and claimed only bronze.
“I´m happy to win gold and more than that to hear I was the first to win gold for my country in the event,” Binita expressed her joy.
She dedicated her win to her parents and coach.
Meanwhile, Sunil Lama won the second gold medal for Nepal in karate on Sunday itself. Sunil won the gold in 55kg weight category of karate.
Silver for Bikash, Anu
Bikash Gurung and Anu Adhikari claimed silver medals for Nepal in Sunday´s chhan chwan all-round thaulo event of wushu and women´s 55 kg kumite karate, respectively.
Bikash´s gold medal hopes were shattered when he lost to an Indian player in the final of the event held in Sylhet, a city 300 km away from Dhaka.
Likewise, Anu lost to Pakistani karateka Sarah in the final 2-4. Anu defeated Indian player Shaba in the quarterfinal and outclassed Bangladeshi Jaw-U-Prew by 9-0 in the semifinal.
In men´s team kata, Parshuram Bastola, Ganesh Bahadur Thing and Kushal Shrestha teamed up for Nepal but they lost to Pakistan in the semifinal. As there were only four teams, they claimed bronze for Nepal.
Nepal´s gold hope Subhadra Shrestha failed on Sunday at Mirpur. Subhadra had reached the semifinal with quarterfinal byes and lost there to Bangladeshi player Jaw-U-Prew, and in the bronze decider she lost to Pakistani Zohrah.
In men´s individual kata (wushu), Parshuram lost to Mir Mohammad Ibn Iftakhar of Bangladesh in the quarterfinals.
Muna secures bronze in TT
Muna Basukala created history as she became the first Nepali player to enter the semifinals of women´s singles table tennis in the regional sports extravaganza after 19 years.
Muna, after entering the semifinals, has secured at least a bronze. She entered the semifinals by defeating a Sri Lankan opponent 4-0 in straight sets on Sunday.
Sijarin Shah had won a bronze medal in women´s singles in the fifth SAF Games held in Colombo in 1991 and no one had repeated the feat after that. "I am extremely happy that I am in the semis and hope to give my best there," said Muna after the win.
Nabita Shrestha, meanwhile, lost her quarterfinal match.
Likewise, Ajay Suwal lost to his Sri Lankan opponent in the quarterfinal of men´s singles quarterfinal match.
Ajay was leading by three sets against the Sri Lankan opponent before losing the next four sets. Ajay won the first three sets 11-8, 11-5, 11-9 but lost the next four 8-11, 11-13, 9-11, 18-20.
Earlier, Ajay defeated Sayed Saleem Abbas of Pakistan in the pre-quarterfinal match. "Muna won because her application in the match was excellent while Ajay lost for the lack of those qualities," said coach Nabin Suwal.
Nepal had mixed results in the first round of the women´s doubles matches.
Muna and Gita Thapa Magar defeated Erandi Dilushika Warusaw and Nuwani Navodya Gonapir of Sri Lanka 5-11, 11-8, 11-6, 11-7 while Nabita and Renuka Khatri lost to Sonam Sultana and Selaha Parvin of Bangladesh 11-5, 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 8-11.
Ajit eyes gold
Ajit Gurung is one step away from grabbing a gold in boxing. Ajit defeated Mohammad Aziz of Afghanistan in the semifinal bout of Light Weight (60kg) category and bagged a 10-9.
He will take on Mohammad Jewel (Bangladesh) on Monday.
However, another boxer Laxman Saud retired from his semifinal bout after going down against the Asian Championship gold medalist Suranjoy Singh of India in the Fly Weight (51kg) category. Coach Prachanda Sharma asked for the retirement after Laxman trailed 0-0 in the third round.
Archery
Nepal will take on Bhutan on Sunday for the bronze medal of the men´s team event in archery. Nepal lost to Bangladesh in the last round of the event but qualified to fight for the bronze.
Ashim Sherchan scored 202 in the last round against Bangladesh while Prem Prasad Pun scored 218 points. Likewise, Prem Moktan scored 228 points but could not defeat Bangladesh. He, however, qualified to contest for bronze.
National records in athletics
Two new national records were set in athletics but the records were not sufficient for Nepal to win any medals.
Keshari Chaudhary set a new record in women´s high jump while Dhirendra Chaudhary made it in 110-meter hurdles.
Keshari was contesting for bronze till the last moment but lost it. Keshari jumped 1.69 meters to better her own record of 1.56 meters.
Loss in cricket
Nepal lost the third place playoff match against Pakistan in cricket at the Sher-a-Bangla Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.
Winning the toss, Nepal elected to bat first and put up 147 runs losing seven wickets in 20 overs. Subhash Khakurel scored 25 runs off 21 balls while another opener Anil Kumar Mandal scored 20 off 19. Pradeep Airee hit the highest 52 runs off 45 balls for Nepal. Nepali skipper Gyanendra Malla scored 30 runs off 25 balls.
In reply, Pakistan met the target losing 8 wickets with 3 balls to go. Nepal plugged off Pakistani wickets early. Pakistan were trailing on 5 for 57 in 8.3 overs. However, the partnership between Rameez Alam (33) and Shoaim Khaliq (30) saved Pakistan and finally bagged the two-wicket victory.
Chandra Saud took 3 wickets while Gyanendra picked two wickets. Amrit Bhattarai and Pradeep Airee took a wicket each.
Hosts Bangladesh won the gold defeating Sri Lanka by 6 runs in the final.
Wrestling hopes end
Nepal´s hope of adding medals from wrestling ended on Sunday.
Nepali wrestlers Mukhtar Aalam and Buni Lal Yadav both crashed out of the contest from the first round.
Mukhtar lost to a Sri Lankan player in 60 kg weight category while he lost to an Afghani player in the bronze fight.
Buni Lal lost his first round fight against a Bangladeshi wrestler in 74 kg weight category.
Taekwondo
Though Nepal´s hope of dominance in taekwondo failed in the first two days, Nepal are expecting at least 3 gold medals on Monday from the game.
Three-time SAG gold medalist Deepak Bista, 10th SAG gold medalist Manita Shahi and silver medalist Ayusha Shakya are fighting for golds.
Deepak is contesting in men´s under 87 kg weight category and will face Mohammad Mizanur Rahman of Bangladesh in his first game while Ayusha will face Pakistani Madiha Mazhar in first game of women´s under 53 kg.
Manita, who received byes in the quarterfinals, will play the semifinal in women´s under 57 kg weight category while Badri Nath Basnet in men´s over 87 kg weight category will face Sri Lankan Ravindra Rajapaksha in his first match.
However, Nepal had to contend with one silver and two bronze medals till the end of day two.
Nepal claimed one bronze on day two of taekwondo through Dan Bahadur Airee in men´s under 74 kg weight category. Dan Bahadur defeated Kusang Eangdi of Bhutan in the quarterfinal by 4-3. However, he lost to Rizwan Islam of Pakistan 4-9 in the semifinal.
Day two was more frustrating for Ramesh Kumar Shrestha (men´s under 80 kg) and Sabina Maharjan (women´s under 49 kg). Ramesh lost to Indian Anand Pandia Rajan 7-11 in the quarterfinal while Sabina lost to Samiya Imdad of Pakistan 2-3 in her first fight.
Swimming
The poor run of Nepali swimmers continued on Sunday.
Oshin Bharati was in the bottom of women´s 50-meter backstroke with a timing of 39.57 seconds. Farah Jaman from India won the gold with a timing of 33 seconds.
Likewise, Sailesh Rana also remained in the bottom of the table in men´s 100-meter backstroke. Sailesh clocked 1 minute 16.24 seconds while Indian Sandeep Saijwal finished it in 1 minute 5.1 seconds to clinch the gold.
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