Consolation Wins
In the ongoing 15 th Asian Games, Nepalese athletes have won a handful of medals as consolation
By A CORRESPONDENT
As expected, Nepalese athletes have not been able to attain any spectacular results in the ongoing 15 th Asian Games in Doha , Qatar .
Till December 10, Nepal had won three bronze medals and all of them from Taekwondo.
 |
Ayesha Shakya : Bronze winner
|
Ayesha Shakya won the third bronze medal for Nepal on December 10. Shakya fighting in the 59-kg category, was defeated by a Vietnamese player Thi Hoai Thu Nguyen in the semi finals. Shakya, a silver medalist at the Tenth South Asian Games held earlier this year, had reached semi finals after defeating a Chinese player.
Deepak Bista had bagged the second bronze medal. Bista bagged the bronze medal in 75-kg category by defeating a Kuwaiti player in the quarter final on Friday. He, however, lost to a Qatari player in semi final, in what the Korean coach Kwon Hyouk claimed as biased refereeing. Bista is one of the most successful taekwondo players of Nepal . He has already won gold medal thrice in the South Asian games. He had also won a bronze medal in the previous Busan Asian games held four years ago.
Likewise, Manita Shahi became the first Nepalese athlete to bag any medal in the ongoing 15 th Asian Games. Shahi won the bronze medal in the 63-kg category of Taekwondo on Thursday. She was defeated by an athlete from Chinese Taipei Wen Su Li in semifinal. Earlier she had trounced Sangya Wangmo of Bhutan in a quarterfinal match after defeating Varsah Bende of India in the first round. Shahi is a gold medalist at the Tenth South Asian Games held recently in Colombo , Sri Lanka .
Taekwondo, karate, wushu and judo are few events in which Nepalese athletes are expected to bring home some medals.
In athletics, Nepalese players could not perform well. Kanchhi Maya Koju completed her 10,000 meter running in 37 minutes 59.76 seconds – which could provide her only the last position among seven other runners. A silver medalist at Tenth South Asian Games, Koju came last in the race in Doha , which was won by a Japanese runner.
Likewise, runner Arjun Bahadur Basnet finished at the 11 th place in the marathon tournament by clocking 2 hours 23 minutes and 55 seconds. A Qatari runner won the marathon 11 minutes and 11 seconds ahead of Basnet who had won a silver medal in the marathon at Tenth South Asian Games.
Till December 10, Nepal was placed at 33 rd position in the medals table. China led the medal tally by bagging 110 gold medals followed by Japan (38 gold) and South Korea (37 gold).
Among the South Asian countries, India stood at seventh position with six gold and 13 silver and bronze medals respectively. Pakistan has bagged one silver and Bangladesh one bronze till now.
Meanwhile, the Doha Games started on December 1 amid a spectacular Opening Ceremony, arguably one of the most elaborate ceremonies in the history of any sporting event. The ceremony had both spectacle and modern technology with the world’s largest LCD screen that made use of several special effects that would not have been amiss in a Hollywood blockbuster.
The ceremony was inaugurated by Qatari Emir at the Khalifa stadium. The largest game show after summer Olympics, the Asian Games is held every four years.
This year, 50 Nepalese sportspersons are taking part in 14 events. Over 10,000 athletes from 45 countries of Asia will be competing in 39 sports events in the Doha Asiad. As the game is still continuing, Nepal can still hope to bag some more medals in the coming days. However, dismal performance of almost all South Asian countries show how far behind they are even at the Asian level in competitive sports.
