Nepal lost to India by 4-0 in football

By Nepal News Correspondent

Kathmandu, Sept 30:
Defending champion India beat host Nepal by 4-0 in football under 8th SAF Games played in Kathmandu. Both Nepal and India played from group D. Today's match did not make any difference for both the teams as both India and Nepal have already entered semis. Nepal now would play with Maldives and India with Bangladesh in semifinal games.

India’s Jules Albert scored two easy goals in the 4th and 30th minutes of the first half, while Hardeep Sangha scored the third and MD Nazib scored the fourth goal for India. Today's match between Nepal and India appeared to be more unbalanced and Indian players were not in pressure because of the weak defense of Nepal. Despite several good chances Nepalese players got during the game, they could not make it to the goal. The height and physical strength supported much to the Indian side. Nepali players took more offensive strategy throughout the game. But their weak performance compared to Indian players proved to be detrimental. Nepalese goalkeeper Upendra Man Singh seemed defenseless as Nepalese defenders were so week that Indian strikers were not even challenged in the D-area in several occasions, whereas Indian defense was very strong. Nepalese strikers were hardly given balls in their areas, instead strikers had to move to the mid-field to get the ball.

Indian players found easy to make the ball into the goal post as defense of the Nepali side was so weak and almost empty. India dominated throughout the game.

Nepal wins five bronze medals in wrestling

By Nepal News Correspondent

Kathmandu, Oct 1:
Nepal could not bag any gold and silver medal today, the seventh day of
the 8th SAF Games being held in Kathmandu. However, it won five bronze medals only in wrestling. With five bronzes won today, Nepal’s medal tally has reached 43
including 17 gold, 7 silver and 19 bronze medals.

Those who won bronze medals for Nepal today are: Dharma Raj Yadav in 97-130 category of wrestling, Sobhi Yadav in 58 kg category of wrestling, Upendra Das Bairagi in 69 kg category of wrestling Bramhadev Yadav in 85 category of wrestling and Raji Sharan Yadav in 97 category of wrestling.

India completely dominated in the wrestling events held today. India has so far won 88 gold medals. Nepal is second with 17 gold medals. Sri Lanka is third with 16 golds. In the shooting events as well, India maintained its supremacy.

Nepal and Bangladesh reach final in football

By Nepal News Correspondent

Kathmandu, Oct 2:
Nepal and Bangladesh reach final in football of the 8th SAF Games played in Dashrath Statium today. Nepal beat Maldives by 2-1 and Bangladesh smashed defending champion India by 1-0 in the semi-final matches played today. Nepal’s Hari Kahdka and Naresh Joshi scored one each goal to qualify Nepal for the final match to be played with Bangladesh on Monday. Nepal’s striker Naresh Joshi scored the first clean goal for Nepal in the 11th minutes of the game while Hari Kahdaka earned another beautiful goal in the 15th minutes.

Maldivian players tried very hard to score goal against Nepal but Nepal’s strong defense as well as attack did not allow Maldives to prove its supremacy.
However, Maldives Mousam A. G. gave a reply to Nepal by scoring one goal
towards the end of first half of the game.In the second half of the game, Nepali players dominated the scene amidst the thundering cheers and applause of thousands of viewers in the stadium. Nepal’s Naresh Joshi had several opportunities but missed each time disappointing the crowd.

As one Maldives player got the ball into the goal post, they were really jubilant. But it soon turned out to be a moment of disappointment as the umpire signaled off side and did not give the goal. In the whole second half, Nepalese players played more defensive but continued to give pressure to their rival Maldives. Maldives team, despite tremendous pressure from the Nepali players, played well and
their performance was even superior than Nepalese. The Dashrath Stadium was crowded to see the match between Nepal and Maldives. Viewers who were disappointed by the poor performance of the Nepalese players in the previous match played with India were really jubilant and exited.

arlier the first semi final game of 8th SAF games was played in Dashrath Stadium between India and Bangladesh. Bangladesh defeated defending champion India by 1-0. Bangladesh Mohammad S. Tipu scored the maiden goal to qualify Bangladesh for the final. Bangladesh would play with Nepal on Monday.

In the match, he first half was disappointing for both the teams as none of the players could score any goal. In comparision to previous matches, India failed to leave upto the expectation. Players of Bangladesh were very really exited when they got the second chance to score a goal But Bangladesh could not grab this opportunity and translate it into goal.

At the 45th second of the first half there was a good chance for Indian captain J.P. Ansari. But he was not successful. On the 2nd half of the game Indians played very brilliantly. The popular striker of India I.M.Vijayan got several chances but the Bangladeshi defenders confidently foiled Indian attempt to score any goal. Strikers
of Bangladesh also tried hard to take the ball away from the Indian defenders. One of the player of Bangladesh named Md.S.Tipu was successful to score the first goal in the match. The first goal was scored from about 35 meters from the goal post .This was the first and the last goal of the game.

Nepal bags four more gold medals; total gold medals so far 21

By Nepal News Correspondent

Kathmandu, Oct 2:
Nepal continued to increase its gold medals in the 8th SAF Games being held in Kathmandu. In today’s taekwondo matches, Nepal snatched four gold out of total six gold medals in taekwondo. Sabita Rajbhandari, Sita Rai, Kishor Shrestha and Deepak Bista won gold medal in different categories of taekwondo events.

Similarly, Nepal won two silvers in the taekwondo today. By winning 4 gold and two silver medals in the six events, Nepal has maintained its supremacy in taekwondo game. In the shooting ( men’s 10 meter category), Upendra Thapa, Bikash Bikram Rana and Jagat Bahadur Tamang jointly won a bronze medal for Nepal.

In table tennis, Nepal won two bronze medals—one in men’s doubles and another in women’s doubles. In men’s doubles, Rajendra Kapali and Sandeep Singh won a bronze medal while Sandhya Shakya and Geeta Thapamagar won a bronze medal for Nepal in women's’table tennis double.With four gold medals won today, Nepal has so far won 21 gold, 9 silver and 22 bronze medals. Nepal is so far in the second position in terms of gold medals.

India is the first with 94 gold medals and Sri Lanka third with 16 gold medals.
Bhutan bagged its first gold medal today in taekwondo, while Maldives so far has not received any gold medal.

Nepal sweeps in all six events of taekwondo today

By Nepal News Correspondent

Kathmandu, October 3:
Nepal won six gold medals in taekwondo sweeping in all six events of taekwondo held in Kathmandu under 8th SAF Games. Those who won gold medals for Nepal in today’s taekwondo events are

1. Raj Kumar Rai in men middle weight category
2. Ravi Ujjwal Thapaliya in men welter weight category
3. Ritu Rai in women middle weight category
4. Koshish Khadka in men bantam weight
5. Renuka Magar women bantam weight
6. Pramila Thapa in women welter weight category

Similarly, Nepal won two bronze medals today—one in women volleyball and other in table tennis (mixed doubles). In table tennis, Rajendra Kapali and Geeta Thapamagar won bronze medals for Nepal.

Nepal has so far won 27 gold medals, 9 silver medals and 24 bronze medals in the 8th SAF Games.

Bangladesh win gold medal in football

By Nepal News Correspondent

Kathmandu, Oct 4:
Bangladesh bagged gold medal in football by defeating host Nepal by 1-0 in the football final match held in Dashrath Stadium today. This is the last gold medal in the 8th SAF Games. Despite excellent performance of Nepali players, Bangladesh scored one easy goal in the 44th minute of the first half of the game.

In the second half Nepal tried hard to equalize but failed due to strong defensive strategy of Bangladesh team. Nepali strikers, Hari Kahdaka and Naresh Joshi had got several good opportunities but could not succeed to score any goal. Nepal got the silver in football.

India beat Maldives in the game for third place:

Earlier, in the football match held in Dashrath Stadium for the third place under 8th SAF Games, India beat Maldives by 3-1. By defeating Maldives, India has won bronze medal in football. Until last minutes, India and Maldives had one goal each. As no side had scored another goal to win the game until the last minutes, umpires had already announced to decide through penalty shoot out. However, Indian
players marvelously scored two goals within a few minutes towards the
end of the match. India had won gold medal in football in the 7th SAF Games.

8th SAF Games concludes

By Nepal News Correspondent

Kathmandu, Oct 4:

The 8th SAF Games that began on September 25 in Kathmandu concluded today amidst special ceremony in Dashrath Stadium, Kathmandu. Chairman of Nepal Olympic Committee Rukma Sumsher Rana formally announced the conclusion of the 8th SAF Games.

Earlier in the concluding ceremony held in Dashrath Stadium, acting Prime Minister Yog Prasad Upadhyay put off the flag of the 8th SAF Games and handed it over to Pakistani Olympic Committee chairman.

The ninth SAF Games is to be held in Pakistan. Addressing the concluding ceremony acting Prime Minister Upadhyay described the successful conclusion of 8th SAF Games in Kathmandu as a matter of national prestige and thanked all those who participated in the games and extended their active cooperation for making the Games a grand success. He also said that the spirit of sportsmanship needed to be continued in order to develop discipline and promote feeling of friendship and goodwill among nations and peoples. In the 8th SAF Games, India maintained its supremacy in the regional sports with 102 gold medals, Nepal became second with 31 gold, and Sri Lanka is third with 16 gold medals. Pakistan won 10 gold medals, Bangladesh 2 and Bhutan 1. Maldives did not win any gold medal in the 8th SAF Games. There were a total of 161 gold medals in 12 different sporting events in the 8th SAF Games.