After defeating Pakistan 7-0 in their last round robin matche at the same stadium on Saturday, Nepali women entered into the final of women´s football. [break]
Anu Lama struck a hat-trick in the match. Anu opened her account in the fifth minute of the match and added her second in the 42nd minute. She completed her hat-trick in the 58th minute.
Pramila Rai scored in the 10th and 30th minutes of the match, while Jamuna Rai scored in the 55th and 81st minutes to demolish Pakistan.
Nepali women are all set to face the Indian women in the final on Monday. Earlier, Nepal had suffered a 5-0 defeat against India in the round robin match in the regional meet.
Nepali men´s football team had created history in the Sixth SAF Games, Dhaka in 1993 as they had won one and only gold for Nepal in the games. Nepali men´s team had defeated India in final to win the gold medal.
The men´s team were expecting to repeat the history of winning gold but failed as they crashed out from the group stage.
Nepal coach Dhruba KC said that Nepali girls are ready to create history and claimed that his team would play a much improved game than they did in the league match.
Women´s football is included for the first time in the history of the regional sports extravaganza.
Satendra bags silver in wrestling
Satendra Prasad Yadav claimed the third silver medal for Nepal in 120 kg weight category of wrestling during the 11th South Asian Games in Dhaka on Saturday.
Satendra defeated Najmul Haque of Bangladesh in the semifinal but lost to Indian Hitesh in the final played at the Kabaddi Stadium. Najmul and Pakistani Muhammad Taseem claimed bronze in the category. [break]
Earlier on Saturday, Purushottam Rijal of wushu and Kumar Manandhar of taekwando gained silver for Nepal.
However, Nepali wrestler Suvash Yadhav in 66 kg weight category lost to Sri Lankan Roshan Indika Liyanage in the preliminary round. Pradeep Kumar of India won the gold of the event where Muhammed Salman of Pakistan claimed silver and Roshan as well as Sorat Chandra Ray of Bangladesh bagged bronze medal.
Likewise, Prahlad Yadav lost to Pakistani Usman Shahid in the first round of 84 kg weight category. Indian wrestler Rajiv Sharma won the gold in the event where Toryalai Sadeqi from Afghanistan claimed silver and Bangladeshi Mohammad Mijanur Rahman and Usman bagged bronze.
Boxing
The second day of boxing during the 11th South Asian Games brought disappointment to Nepal as medal´s hope Sushil Ghimire suffered a loss in the first round of 64 kg event at the Mohammad Ali Boxing Stadium in Dhaka on Saturday.
Sri Lanka boxer Sisira Kumarasinghe defeated Sushil 7-3. Sushil had won the silver medal during the 10th SAG Colombo.
Likewise, Dinesh Shrestha in 57 kg lost to another Sri Lankan Priya Darshana Silva by two points and crashed out of the contest from the quarterfinals. Similarly, Devendra Singh Thakuri lost to Mohammad Nadeen Hussien of the hosts Bangladesh in 54 kg weight category.
However, Ajit Gurung entered the semifinals defeating Bhutanese boxer Giri Tshungel in the quarterfinal. Ajit won the 60 kg bout 6-4. He will fight his semifinal bout on Sunday while Laxman Saud, who received byes in the quarterfinals, will play his first bout on Sunday.
Swimming
The record 12-gold winner of the Fifth National Games Karishma Karki completed her 100 m butterfly final of swimming at the bottom during the 11th South Asian Games in Dhaka on Saturday.
Karishma completed the swim in the seventh position clocking 1 minute, 23.05 seconds. Indian Richa Mishra clocked 1 minute 5.74 seconds to win the gold, her compatriot Vandita Dhariyal claimed silver and Miniruwani Shashiprabha Samarakoon of Sri Lanka bagged the bronze.
Puspa Raj Shahi finished at the best position among the Nepali swimmers on Saturday. Puspa completed swim one spot above the bottom in the men´s 100m backstroke finals. Puspa´s timing was one minute 14.40 seconds in the event in which Sailesh Rana could not even qualify for the final.
Heshan Bandara Unamboowe of Sri Lanka won gold completing the event in 58.98 seconds. Balakrishnan Melkote Barrinath of India claimed the silver and Md Rubel Rana of Bangladesh bagged the bronze.
Another swimmer Prasiddha Jung Shah stayed at the eighth position in the eight-man participating event of men´s 50m freestyle. Prasiddha timed 27.96 seconds.
Indian swimmer Viradhawal Vikram Khade clocked 23.73 seconds to win the gold in the event.
Squash
Nepal lost their last round robin match in team event of squash against Bangladesh on Saturday during the 11th SAG being held in Dhaka.
Nepal´s Suresh Kumar Gurung lost to Bangladeshi Rajan Kumar 6-11, 4-11, 6-11 while Hira Bahadur Thapa suffered a 1-11, 5-11, 4-11 loss to Goyal Parvez.
Archery
Nepali men´s and women´s teams both qualified for the second round of archery on day one of the game on Saturday during the 11th South Asian Games.
Ashim Sherchan was on top among Nepali players. He scored 624 points out of 720 while Prem Prasad Pun scored 612 points.
Likewise, Shanti Sherchan and Radhika Blon qualified in the women´s rankings. Shanti scored 459 and Radhika scored 452.
India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Bangladesh are participating in archery.
Athletics
Nepal started their athletics campaign poorly in the ongoing SAG on Saturday. Nepali athletes, who contested on Saturday, could not meet their own records in Dhaka.
Tilak Ram Tharu qualified for the final round from the heat in men´s 200m but he stood sixth in the final round among eight participants. In the same event Balaram Chaudhary could not cross the heat round.
In women´s 200m Pramila Rijal stood seventh among eight athletes while Hari Rimal finished 1500m race in the fifth position among the eight.
In long-jump, Bidyadhar Chaudhary failed to outplay his opponents as he remained in the sixth position among eight athletes while Narendra Jung Shah in discus-throw and Santosh Kumar Shrestha in 400m hurdles remained at the bottom of the table.
Golf
Nepali golfer Rupak Acharya lingered in the 13th position of golf tournament during the 11th South Asian Games at the Kurmitola Golf Club Dhaka on Saturday.
Rupak maintained the card of seven-over 79 and he was the best among the four Nepali golfers.
Rupak began the fourth and final round with a par in the first hole but had a double bogey in the second. The Gokarna Forest Club amateur made pars in the third and fourth hole and a birdie in the fifth. He scored pars in the next three holes before saving a shot in the ninth hole to take the turn with an even par 36.
However, Rupak played a terrible round of golf in the back nine to finish for a total of 22-over 310.
Tashi Tsering also registered seven-over 79 in the final round for a total of 40-over 328 to finish in the 17th position in the competition among 28 South Asian amateur golfers.
Tashi Ghale, who shot 12-over 84 on Saturday, was the next Nepali at the 20th position with the total score of 49-over 337. Bishnu Prasad Sharma carded 15-over 87 for a total of 54-over 342 to end up 21st.
Bronze in table tennis
Nepal won bronze medal in the men´s team event of table tennis during the 11th South Asian Games on Saturday.
Nepal defeated Pakistan 3-0 to confirm the semifinal berth but lost 3-0 to India in the semifinal on Saturday. Nepal had thrashed Afghanistan on Friday.
In round robin match, Nepal´s Ajay Suwal defeated Pakistani Yasir Bhath 11-9, 10-12, 11-8, 15-13 while Purushottam Bajracharya outplayed Saeem Abbas 17-15, 8-11, 9-11, 13-11, 11-19. Likewise, Deep Saun thrashed Bilac Yasim 11-4, 11-6, 11-5 to secure semifinal berth and at least a bronze medal.
However, Nepal could not march forward from the semifinal as powerhouse India defeated them. Indian Soumyadeep Roy defeated Purushottam 11-6, 11-8, 11-9 while Amalraj Anthony defeated Ajay 11-4, 11-8, 12-10. Likewise, Jubin Kumar thrashed Deep Saun 11-2, 11-4, 11-6 to limit Nepal for bronze.
However, Nepal crashed out of women´s table tennis team event from first round after they lost 2-3 to Bangladesh on Saturday.
Nabita Shrestha won both her matches in the round robin draw against her Bangladeshi opponents but Gita Thapa Magar and Muna Basukala lost their matches.
Nabita won the first singles match against Saleha Pravin 11-9, 11-6, 11-7 and gave a good start to the team. However, Gita lost to Moumita Alam 11-9, 10-12, 11-6, 5-11, 9-11 in the second singles. Bangladesh then took a lead as Sonam Sultana defeated Nepal´s Muna Basukala 11-7, 8-11, 11-7, 8-11, 4-11.
Nabita in her reverse singles defeated Moumita Alam 10-12, 11-8, 11-1, 9-11, 11-5 to level the match. However, Gita lost her reverse singles and produced an upsetting result. Saleha Pravin defeated Gita 11-5, 11-8, 11-8.
Had Nepal defeated Bangladesh, they would have reached the semifinals.
Nepal slated in pool ´A´ of the event had lost their first draw against India in the three-team pool.
Cricket
Nepal confirmed their place in the 3rd position playoff match of cricket during the 11th South Asian Games on Saturday.
In the five-team event, Nepal defeated Maldives by 10 wickets in the round robin match played in Mirpur to claim fourth position of the round robin table.
Batting first, Maldives could not resist Nepal´s bowling attack and were all out for a paltry total of 55 in 16.4 overs. Anil Mandal sent four Maldivians back to the pavilion while Amrit Bhattarai and Bhuwan Karki took two wickets each. Nepali skipper Gyanendra Malla claimed one wicket during the process of demolishing Maldives.
Chasing the small total, Nepal met the target with the completion of 7 overs without losing any wicket. Anil Mandal topscored for Nepal with 29 runs while Subash Khakurel scored 27 runs for the winners.
Nepal will take on Pakistan in the third place playoff. Nepal had lost to Pakistan by 91 runs in the round robin match.
Silver in taekwondo and wushu
Taekwando player Kumar Manandhar and wushu player Purushottam Rijal claimed silver medals for Nepal during the 11th South Asain Games here on Saturday.
Kumar, who had claimed silver in the 10th SAG, had to be content with the same in men´s under 63 kg weight category in Dhaka on Saturday.
Kumar defeated Mohammad Shah Alam of the hosts in the quarterfinal and Sonam Dorji of Bhutan in the semifinal earlier in the day, but lost to Mohammad Haidari of Afghanistan in the final.
Haidari was strong and too quick for Kumar, who had injured his left leg during the semifinal. In the first round Haidari took a 5-1 lead and leapfrogged the lead to 11-4 in the second round. In the final round, Kumar attempted a comeback but failed to close the gap. Kumar finally lost the match at the score of 12-8.
Kumar expressed satisfaction over his performance. “Though I´m unhappy to lose the final, I´m happy with my overall performance,” said Kumar. “The Afghani opponent was too tough to fight and had created a large gap by the end of the second round. I attempted a comeback but could not narrow down the gap,” Kumar summarized his final fight.
Haidari, who had won bronze in World taekwondo Championship 2009 in Copenhagen, said that he was delighted by the victory over the tough Nepali opponent.
Kumar had defeated Alam at the score of 6-3 in the quarterfinal earlier in the day. The Bangladeshi player had a 1-0 lead at the end of the first round but Kumar pulled it to level at 3-3 by the end of the second round and finally won the match.
In the semifinal, Kumar defeated Sonam by 13-5. They were level by the end of the first round at 2-2 but Kumar took lead by the end of the second round with 8-5 and finally took the score to 13-5.
In women´s under 46 kg, Nepal´s Yan Kumari Chaulagain was restricted to bronze medal as she suffered a loss to Bangladeshi Sharmin Farjana Rumi in the semifinal.
Yan Kumari, who defeated Indian Sabina Sundas at the score of 7-1 in the quarterfinal, lost to Sharmin by 15-12 in the semifinal.
However, Aashish Maharjan could not cross the quarterfinal round in the men´s under 68 kg weight category. Aashish lost to Rehmat Jan from Pakistan in a close contest.
Aashish and Rehman were at equal score of a point each but Rehman took the lead in the second round with 2-1 and they earned equal points after the completion of the third and final round. In extra time Rehman won the match by 4-3 to upset Nepal.
Korean coach of Nepali team Kuan Yuong Jung said Kumar´s injury during the semifinal caused a major setback. “Yan Kumari had to win the semifinal but the result was not so and injury stopped Kumar from giving tough fight in the final,” said Kuan.
Dan Bahadur Airie (men´s under 74 kg), Ramesh Kumar Shrestha (men´s under 80 kg), Sabina Maharjan (women´s under 49 kg) will contest on Sunday for medal´s hope in taekwondo.
Deepak Bista, Manita Shahi, Aayusha Shakya and Badri Nath Basnet will play their matches on Monday. Manita, who received byes, will directly play the semifinal on Monday.
Wushu player Purushottam claimed second silver for the country. Purushottam, who received byes in the quarterfinal, defeated Tajabul Lakauri of Afghanistan in the semifinal in men´s 70 kg weight category san-sau of Wushu event, undergoing in Sylhet, a city 300 km away from Dhaka.
However, Purushottam lost to Indian Rabinder Balara in the final by 2-1 and was restricted to silver medal.
After the result, Nepal´s hope of winning gold from wushu san-sau ended in Sylhet and expectation has now shifted to thaulo event of wushu.
Nepal are vying for four gold medals from the thaulo (performance/demonstration) event. Raju Maharjan, Aang Babu Lama, Bikash Gurung and Binita Maharjan will compete in four different categories of thaulo.
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