Morang, Udayapur in final

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LALITPUR, Nov 9 - Morang and Udayapur set up the Sunday’s final clash of the 2nd Inter-school National girls’ football tournament following their 3-2 and 2-1 victory over Sunsari and Kailali respectively in the semifinals on Friday.

Both the teams displayed brilliant fighting spirit in their respective semifinals producing some enterprising football to outwit their opposition.

In the first match, Morang, trailing by two early goals, held their nerve to cruise to 3-2 victory. Morang’s forward Chittra Maya Ale authored a stunning move to net the golden goal in the added 13th minute.

But much of credit goes to Ganga Gurung, who rescued Morang from the jaws of defeat scoring twice in the match. She could have sealed the match for her team without having to play for extra time goals but failed to convert a spot kick in the 32nd minute as her shot went straight into the hands of Sunsari goalkeeper Usha Bhujel .

Earlier in the 21st minute, the Sunsari girls were awarded spot kick when Morang defender Sarmila Thulung deliberately gathered the ball even as Morang ’keeper Jasta Mangrati failed to collect a Ganga Chaudhary shot neatly. Salu Lama stepped up for the spotkick and slotted home without any mistake to put Sunsari 1-0 ahead.

Four minutes later, Sunsari doubled the lead when Morang goalkeeper Mangrati’s let fly in a 40-yard curling free kick from Sunsari’s captain Tulsha Singh.

Morang, trying desperately for goals, narrowed the deficit down to 2-1 when Gurung buried a powerful right-footer in the 28th minute. And she rose to the occasion again in the 52nd minute as she broke open Sunsari shackle and guided her strong shot into the net leaving Sunsari goalie Bhujel stand still.

The other semifinal to turned out to be as much interesting with Udayapur staging a comeback to score a 2-1 after Bandana Rai put Kailali 1-0 up in the 26th minute of the match.

The change of ends brought an unprecedented fortune for Udayapur as Santi Rai equalise the score at 1-1 in the 60th minute. The decisive goal came from Champa Rai in the 70th minute, which ushered Udayapur to the final.

U-19 closed camp from Nov 18

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KATHMANDU, Nov 9– Nepal will start a closed camp for the youth cricket team from November 18 in preparation for the upcoming ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup which is being held in New Zealand next year, the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN) confirmed Friday in its press release.

Sri Lankan coach Roy Dias, who guided Nepal to the Youth Asia Cup triumph last October in front of the home crowd, will take charge of the team from November 18 till the end of the World Cup campaign. Nepal had defeated Malaysia by seven wickets in the Youth Asia Cup final to qualify for the U-19 World Cup.

The release further adds Nepal will play a couple of warm-up matches on January 16 and 18 in the run up to the World Cup in New Zealand.

Nepal play their first warm-up match with Namibia at Burwood Park, Christchurch followed by the one with a New Zealand regional side Mid Canterbury at Ashaburton Oval, Ashaburton. Nepal, who are pooled in Group ‘C’ alongside the former champion England, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea in the 16-team tournament, begin their campaign against England on January 21. That will follow with the matches against Pakistan and Papua New Guinea on January 22 and 25 respectively.

Top two teams from each of the four groups advance to the Super League. They will then play on a league basis in two groups with top two teams from each group making it to the Super League semifinals.

The two teams that finish at bottom in each of the four groups will contest for the Plate Championship, which is also being played on league format. Top two teams from each of the two groups will advance to the Plate Championship semifinals.

The final matches of the Plate Championship and Super League are scheduled for February 8 and 9 respectively.

Mountain-bike race declared open

KATHMANDU, Nov 9 (PR) - The Siemens Action Asia Himalayan Mountain Bike Race Series 2001 was declared opened amid a grand ceremony from Thamel, the capital’s touristic centre, on Friday.

The opening ceremony marked the eve of the first leg of the three-race series. Around 150-200 cyclists will hit the road through the 22-km trail from Raniban to Kakani.

The second leg will be held on November 18 on the Nagarkot to Sankhu trail while the third and the last race of the series will be staged on November 24. The third race is scheduled to start and end at Lubhu, with a trip to Lukhuri Banjang en route.

The parade, marking the openenig ceremony was attended by a host of dignitaries – President of Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) Rukma Shamsher Rana, Australian Ambassador to Nepal Crispen Conroy, Bangladesh Ambassador Cyril Sikdar and Rajesh Hamal, film artiste on cycle-rickshaw.

The wheel chair athletes from Patan Community Based Rehabilitation Organisation, Rydier Chesire Home, Jorpati and Nepal Disabled Home also participated in the parade. The wheel chair athletes are slated to participate in the three-race series. Nepal Paralympic Committee will award the winners among these athletes, in each of the series.

RYC enter final four

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MORANG, Nov 9 - Rani Youth Club (RYC) of Biratnagar became the last team to book its place in the semifinals of the Samrat Running Cup football tournament defeating Siraha XI 3-1 on Friday.

The RYC will face Rolling Club of Jhapa in the second semifinal slated on Sunday, while Moti Ram Sporting Club will take on Eleven Arrows on Saturday.

The first half proved miserable for the local club as Siraha XI had control over the ball for most of the time. Hari Shanker Medhu of Siraha got his team into the lead in the 18th minute. He took a pass from Bipin Karmacharya inside the opposition territory and did not waste any time to bury it inside the net rounding off RYC goalie.

Siraha XI, relentless with its attack, kept the pressure on the RYC defenders throughout the first half. At the end of first half, Siraha looked comfortable with 1-0 up and on the driving seat.

However, RYC stormed back in the match with the change of ends. In the 50th minute, Kishore Subba received a forward pass by Prakash Karki inside the 18-yard box and did not miss the chance to level score at 1-1.

With first of the goals coming as late as 50th minute, RYC players put their team into unbeatable position scoring all the three goals within a span of 10 minutes.

The second goal again came from Subba, who scored yet again in the 55th minute. It marked a change in the flow of the match as Siraha, till then on the drive, was put on the defensive by the second goal.

Prakash Karki, who was the maker of the first goal, got his name into the scorer’s list by netting the third one for RYC in the 60th minute.

Subba was declared man of the match for his scintillating performance for RYC .