It remains unclear how much a medalist who won two or more than two gold medals will receive in cash due to the contradictory statements from government sports authorities. Besides, the government has yet to reveal details on the reward the medalists will be bagging.
KATHMANDU, Dec 12: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday announced attractive cash package for the medal winners of the recently-concluded 13th South Asian Games (SAG). 

But it remains unclear how much a medalist who won two or more than two gold medals will receive in cash due to the contradictory statements from government sports authorities.

Besides, the government has yet to reveal details on the reward the medalists will be bagging.

According to the announcement, each gold medal winning athlete will be rewarded with a cash prize of Rs 900,000, while the athletes to win two or more than two golds will get Rs 1.1 million. The silver medalists will bag a purse of Rs 600,000 each and bronze medalists will receive Rs 300,000 each.

Garika Singh became the only Nepali athlete to win four golds in a single SAG edition. She also won with two silvers and three bronzes. She won the golds in 200 meters freestyle, 400 meters freestyle, 200 meters backstroke, 100 meters freestyle. 

According to the PM’s Press Advisor Surya Thapa said Singh will get a total of Rs 6.5 million, which include Rs 1.1 million for each of the four gold medals, Rs 600,000 for two silver and Rs 300,000 for three bronze medals.

But, National Sports Council Member Secretary Ramesh Kumar Silwal said Singh will receive a cash prize of Rs 1.1 million only.

The announcement has failed to clarify if the prize Singh will be getting the medals for only gold medals.

If the prize money is calculated as per the PM’s Press Advisor Thapa statement, taekwondo’s Ayesha Shakya, karate’s Kaji Shrestha and golf’s Subhash Tamang will receive Rs 2.2 million each for the two gold medals each they won in their respective sports disciplines. 

Shrestha won a gold in individual event in karate, and teamed up with Mahasus Tamang and Prabin Manandhar to win the men’s team kata gold. 

Likewise, taekwondo’s Shakya won a gold in over 29 years individual poomsae and teamed up with Sanjit Kumar Pandey to win another in team poomsae of the same category, while Tamang claimed a gold medal in men’s singles, and added another with teammates Shukra Bahadur Rai, Tanka Bahadur Karki and Niraj Tamang. 

The announcement states that gold medalists of team events will get Rs 500,000. 

Nepal men’s football team, karate’s men’s kata, taekwondo’s over 29 years poomsae, men’s golf team won golds in the team events. 

It also remains unclear how much Shakya, Shrestha and Tamang will get.

Furthermore, it has not been clarified how much a player winning two silver and bronze medals will receive in cash prize. 

Nepal rewrote the history books bagging record 51 gold medals, 60 silvers and 95 bronzes to take its total medal tally to 206, finishing behind India who won 174 golds. 

In eighth edition, which was also held in Kathmandu, Nepal had won record 31 golds and had finished second in the table behind India as well.

Likewise, each coach will get Rs 500,000. 

Earlier, the government had been rewarding the gold winners with Rs 500,000 each, giving the silver and bronze winners Rs 300,000 and Rs 200,000 each. 

 
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