SPORTS BRIEFS: Hosts into final

ITAHARI, March 17: Hosts Rastriya Jagriti Club ´Red´ stormed into the final of the Fifth Dan Bahadur Memorial Gold Cup football tournament defeating Dhankuta XI 5-1 here on Thursday.



Danny Rai opened the account for the hosts in the fifth minute of the match and Surendra Tamang doubled the tally two minutes later. [break]



Dipesh Rai scored for Dhankuta to make the score 2-1 in the first half, but the hosts dominated the second half. Man-of-the-match Tanka Basnet scored twice early in the second half and Tamang added one more goal to seal the victory. Rastriya Jagriti will lock horns with Tyamke Club, Dharan in the final on Friday.



NRT set up title clash with APF


SINDHUPALCHOWK: A Division club New Road Team (NRT) thrashed Kavre Football Association 4-0 on Thursday to set up a final against another A Division side Nepal APF Club in the San Miguel Sindhu Bhotekoshi Knockout Football Tournament. Jitendra Karki scored in the eighth and 65th minutes of the semifinal match played at the Basantapur Ground at Lamosanghu, Sindhupalchowk. Rajan Adhikari also found the net in the 16th minute while Kavre gifted an own goal to NRT in the first half. Karki was adjudged man of the match for his brace. The final will be played on Sunday. The winners will get Rs 50,000 and trophy.



Chhetri wins Yak Attack Series


KATHMANDU: The Fifth Yak Attack International Mountain Biking Series concluded on Thursday with Nepali rider Ajay Pandit Chhetri finishing first ahead of 20 national and international riders, with an overall timing of 26 hours 11 minutes.



The defending champion, who succeeded in winning eight of the ten stages of the race, was ahead of second placed Rajiv Rai by 28 minutes. Padam Sabenhang finished third, trailing the leader by 51 minutes.



At one stage of the race, Rai was behind Pandit by almost an hour and a half but he made a remarkable progress on the route along the swirling heights of the Thorung La pass, situated at 5416 m, to cut Chhetri´s lead by an hour and claim the second position. Rai won the eighth and ninth stages of the race in the high altitudes of the Annapurna range to displace Sabenhang from the second position.



All three riders occupying the top three spots are from Nepal.



Among the foreign riders, John McGillivray of the UK finished first clocking 34 hours 12 minutes, Paul Bolla of Australia came second with a timing of 36 hours 55 minutes and Stephen Rysdale of the UK claimed the third spot finishing the race in 38 hours 2 minutes.



Siddhipur, Dynamite victorious


KATHMANDU: Siddhipur Sports Club and Dynamite Sports Club won their respective matches on Thursday in the Martyrs Memorial C Division League Football qualifiers. Siddhipur defeated Navikaran Youth Club 3-1 at the ANFA Complex, Lalitpur. A brace from Nished Gurung and a goal from Raj Kumar Lama confirmed the win while Navin Kumar Timilsina scored a consolation for Navikaran. In another match, Dynamite thrashed Kriyasheel Youth Club 6-0. Dipendra Kumar Chaudhary scored twice while Sanjeev Gurung, Roshan Chaudhary, Pradeep Kumar Yadav and Ramesh Kumar Yadav scored a goal each for the winning side.

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