Nepal suffer another set-back

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Feb 15- Nepal sufferred another disappointing loss on Monday in the Group 5 Asia Cup qualifying championship in Kuwait City, Kuwait.

After a dismal performance, they were grounded 0-5 by Turkmenistan. Nepal did hold the rampaging Turkmenistan strikers at bay till most of the first half, however, a late first half goal seemed to open the flood gates.

After getting their first goal in the 35th minute, Turkmenistan doubled their lead withing next two minutes to lead the first half at 2-0. The goal scores were Koliab and Balianov respectively.

Nepal was jolted again in the early minutes of the second half when Lumadip made it 3-0. It was Lumadip again in the 61st minute who made it 4-0 while the 5th goal was scored in the 79th minute by Agaeb.

Earlier in the tournament Nepal was beaten by Yemen 0-3. Nepal so far has only one win recorded against Bhutan.

Nepal’s last match is against host nation Kuwait tomorrow.

Meanwhile Kuwait broke the record for the highest number of goals in the Asian club championship by hammering an astounding 20 goals to Bhutan. The losers failed to score.

Bacher Abdullah scored the maximum 8 goals. Teammate Jasem Hunedi scored 5 goals.

It may be recalled that the previous record was in the name of Iraq who had hammerred Guam 19-0.

Sri Lanka beat Nepal

KATHMANDU, Feb 15 (PR) - Nepal's poor performance in the Thomas Cup badminton championship qualifiers continued Tuesday as they were blanked out 0-5 by Sri Lanka in New Delhi.

In the singles, Pashupati Paneru, Balram Thapa and Rajeev Dahal barely offered any resistance to their respective opposition and went down tamely. And all three lost in straight games. Paneru lost to Tushara Edirisinghe by 5-15, 6-15, Balram Thapa went down to Duminda Jayakodi by 3-15, 3-15 while Dahal could only manage five points against M Fernando, losing 0-15, 5-15.

Nepalese team also proved no match to the Sri Lankan side in the doubles matches. The pair of Kiran Thapa and Pashupati Paneru lost to Duminda Jayakodi and Tushara Edirisinghe 9-15, 6-15 while M Fernando partnering with Chinthaka Gunaratne beat Balram Thapa and Rajeev Dahal by 15-6, 15-4 in the last match for a comprehensive 5- 0 win in the last rubber.

Jaya Trophy cricket

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, Feb 15- 16th National Jaya Trophy championship is going to start from Feb 20, a press release issued by Cricket Association of Nepal states here today.

Altogether 20 districts are participating in the championship that will run upto March 7.

There has been an additional entry of districts like Mahottari, Sarlahi, Kapilvastu and Bardia. All these four new entry districts will have to fight it out in the preliminary round against the bottom placed teams in the first round league played last year.

Siraha, Kailali, Dang and Chitwan are the bottom place teams.

The winner of Siraha vs Mahottari match will advance to Group C, the winner of Sarlahi vs Chitwan match will advance to Group D, the winner of Kailali vs Bardia match will advance to Group A while the winner of Kapilvastu vs Dang will advance to Group B.

The other teams in group A are Bara, Banke and Kaski. The other teams in Group B are Morang, Sunsari, Lalitpur. Similarly Group C has Rupandehi, Kathmandu and Jhapa while Group D has Parsa, Dhanusha and Saptari.