AMF Bowling kicks off

By a Post Reporter

KATHMANDU, July 25- The first AMF National Bowling Championship began at Super bowl Tuesday with Bijay Shahi at top of the leaderboard.

A total of 16 bowlers are participating in the tournament being organized by the Kathmandu Bowling Club.

In the match played under round robin league, Shahi, after a hesitant start with 167 pins in the first frame came back strongly in the following frame with string of perfect scores to register 210, the highest for the day.

Scoring at an average of 187, he registered 187, he registered 187 in the third frame, 170 in the fourth, 203 (5th) and 186 (6th) for an aggregate score 1123 pins.

The average of 190 is considered good in international standard.

Okte Gurung, one of the favourites in the competition finished second at 1059 pins while Tashi Ghale powered his way to the third place with the aggregate of 1083, edging past the Surya Gurung by a single pin.

Those finishing at fifth through ninth positions were Ale Gurung - 1071, Sonam Nepali - 1059, Karma Ghale - 1035, Mani - 1013 and Wangchu Sherpa - 981.

According to the organizers, the participation was subjected to only those players registering average of 150 pins or better.

The winner of the tournament will have an opportunity to represent Nepal at the 36th Amateur AMF World Cup slated for October 15-20 in Lisbon, Portugal. Over eighty countries are expected to take part in the competition, including new entrants Nepal, Eritrea and Czech Republic.

Individuals shine in martial arts

By Ash Pradhan

KATHMANDU, July 25- In line with a series of sports activities observed on the occasion of Crown Prince Dipendra’s 30th birthday, Nepal Karate Federation organised highly publicised Crown Prince Cup National Karate and Kick Boxing championship that concluded a couple of days ago.

Talking about performance, there were some breathtaking individual performances. Of them, there is hardly any doubt that Santosh Khadka representing Bagmati zone was the pick of the lot in the karate and kick boxing section. Khadka created a sort of record in the 65 kg class by knocking all his opponents. By the time he reached the final, he had started commanding such a high level of respect that his opponent in the final didn’t turn up.

Other impressive performance came in the form of Mukesh Baruwal of Karnali who won the 55 kg class and Gopal Maharjan, winner of 60 kg in the kick boxing section.

Similarly, in men’s official karate, undisputed champion Ravi Maharjan of Bagmati once again showed that why he is the country’s most highly rated karateka by demonstrating an immaculate performance in the 60 kg and team event category.

Official karate also observed a tough competition as Raju Adhikari, Chandra Krishna Prajapati, Ramesh Nepali, Fatta Gurung came out winners after much sweating in their respective weight categories.

In the women’s kick boxing Sushmita Kandel, Sumnima Rai, Man Kumari Tamang were impressive while in official karate, Krishna KC, Sunita Tamang, Sunita Maharjan and Kunti Gurung did justice to their talent.

Bagmati came out the overall winner to win the Crown Prince Running Shield, a 200 tolas weighing silver cup.

The occasion also provided the sports officials to address the highly sensitive issue of the government’s decision to sack a number of sports coaches.

Member of Parliament and former Sports Minister Sharat Singh Bhandari said that if the government goes ahead with the decision it would certainly be the most unfortunate decision and the biggest irony after what these people had done to bring the unprecedented success in the 8th SAF Games.

Despite, Nepal Karate Federation’s effort to give a touch of colour to the proceedings by inducting dance sequences in the closing ceremony, it somehow seemed to go off hand as the spectators were completely bored by the lengthy speeches (as many as five dignitaries addressed the concluding ceremony) and four or five dance sequences. It also meant that the real action started quite late. A karate fan who had come up with his children, got so irritated by these that he actually left the hall before the fights began.

Overall, competed by 258 players, it was a good tournament to have which will take the form of international level from next year.