Similarly, each member of the Nepali women’s volleyball team that won silver medal in the First South Asian Invitational Women´s Volleyball Championship held in Kathmandu as well as the Nepali national women’s football team that finished second in the Women´s SAFF Championship held in Pakistan last year and the U-14 women’s football team that won the AFC U-14 Regional Championship held in Sri Lanka last year were felicitated with Rs 25,000 each for their feat in the international sporting events.
Assistant cricket coach Jagat Tamata was also awarded Rs 100,000 as a sign of rectifying the error of the Ministry of Youth and Sports for omitting his name from the list of the members who won the Division 3 tournament in Malaysia last year. All the members of the team except Tamata were awarded on December 24 last year.
President Ram Baran Yadav, Energy Minister Radha Gyawali, Minister for Youth and Sports (MoYS) Purushottam Paudel, MoYS Secretary Dipenranath Sharma honored the players during a program held at the office of the President, Shital Niwas.
Sangina is the first Nepali athlete to qualify for the Olympics after securing a berth in the 2004 Athens Olympics through the Asian Qualifying Championship.
She claimed gold medals at the 12th Asian Taekwondo Championship (ATC) in 1996 in Australia, 8th SAG in Kathmandu and 9th SAG in Islamabad. She also won silver in the 11th ATC-Philippines and bronze in the 14th ATC Hong Kong-2000. She announced her retirement from the game in July 2009, and is currently working as a senior coach at the National Sports Council.
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Sangina, who was elated after being honored, said that such types of felicitation from the government gives positive messages to new and young players.
“The felicitation at a time when women players are rarely getting chances to participate in international tournaments means a lot to me and for other women players as well because they will be motivated and feel a sense of security from the government,” said Sangina, adding that players should possess patience to achieve success in any discipline.
Meanwhile, President Yadav congratulated them for achieving success in the international tournaments despite having little facilities.
“The feats achieved by them have given the country recognition,” said Yadav and added that he was ready to help them at time of need.
Minister for Youth and Sports Paudel said that budget of Rs 2 billion is needed for the development of sports in Nepal. “We get less than one percent of budget which is not enough for the sports sector so we need at least Rs 2 billion,” he said.
