GUWAHATI, Feb 16: Nepal wrapped up its 12th South Asian Games campaign with an ominous sign -- winning bronze medal just like it had opened the medals tally with a bronze - for a total of three gold medals, 23 silver and 34 bronzes.
Ganga Chaudhary (U-70 kg), Poonam Shrestha (U-78 kg) and Shiva Bahadur Baram (U-100 kg) won bronze medals in judo on Tuesday, the final day of the regional sports fest. Earlier, Devi Chaudhary had won the first medal in weightlifting for Nepal with a third-place finish.
Nepal secured sixth position in the medals tally as the curtain fell with a sumptuous ceremony at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in Guwahati, India on Tuesday. Although the event was held for 12 days in Shillong and Guwahati, Nepal did not meet its expectation as the journey ended with only three gold medals.
Nepal’s blushes were spared by judo, wushu and football as the three games fetched gold medals each for the country. Despite the disappointing results, Nepal’s 2-1 win over India in the men’s football final was one of the hugely celebrated moments. Besides men’s football team, wushu player Nima Gharti Magar and judoka Phupu Lhamu Khatri claimed golds.
Nepal had high expectations from taekwondo but the players returned home without gold medal. Similarly, Nepal that had won medals in marathon in every edition but did not win this time.
Young Nepali players were impressive in individual games in the 12th SAG. Nepali swimming had memorable moments with two dozens of national records and sensational performance by Gaurika Singh, who bagged one silver and two bronze medals to record her name in history books. Nepal had never won individual medal in swimming in the SAG.
Nepal did not have to work hard to win bronze medals in most of the team games as medals were confirmed upon reaching the semifinals.
Nepal had participated in 23 games. However, basketball competitions were not held due to internal conflict within Indian Basketball Association.
The only Nepali team missing from the competition was the men’s hockey team. Nepal won medals in football, wushu, judo, swimming, weightlifting, taekwondo, triathlon, badminton, table tennis, kho-kho, squash, archery, boxing, hockey, wrestling, kabbadi, volleyball and athletics, but remained medal-less in shooting, handball, cycling and tennis.
Meanwhile, Nepal will hold the 13th South Asian Games in 2018. Indian Olympic Committee President N Ramachandran handed over the host’s flag to Nepal during the closing ceremony at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati. Nepal Olympic Committee President Jeevan Ram Shrestha and Minister for Youth and Sports Satya Narayan Mandal received the flag.
Nepal had earlier hosted the inaugural edition of SAG in 1984 and the eighth edition in 1999. Though the member countries of SAG had requested Nepal to host the next edition of the biennial event in 2017, Nepal said that it could host the event only in 2018.
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