Nepali shooter Bajdru Uddin Ansari scored 549 points out of 600 while Sudhan Khadka scored 541 points. Anil Thakuri remained at the bottom among the teammates with 520 points. India won the gold medal in the event with the total score of 1716 out of 1800 points. [break]
Following the poor performance in the team event, no Nepali shooter qualified for the individual event of 10-meter air pistol. Top eight shooters of the team event qualify for the individual event.
Nepali men´s team had claimed a bronze on Wednesday in 10-meter air rifle team event.
Taekwondo
Gold medalist of 10th South Asian Games Manita Shahi got byes in the quarterfinals here in Dhaka and was directly drawn in the semifinal of women´s 57 kg weight category of taekwondo.
Manita will face the winner of the match between Pakistani and Bangladeshi players on Monday. Along with the direct semifinal berth, Manita has secured at least a bronze.
On the first day of the teaekwondo competition, Kumar Manandhar of Nepal will take on MD Shah Alam of the hosts in the first match while Ashish Maharjan will face Rehmmad Zan. Likewise, Yan Kumar Chaulagain will clash with Sabina Sundas of India on Saturday.
Three-time SAG gold medalist Deepak Bista and silver medalist of the 10th SAG Ayusha Khadka will take on their opponents on Monday in the quarterfinals.
Mixed bag in TT
Table tennis yielded mixed results for Nepal in day one of table tennis during the 11th South Asian Games on Friday.
Nepali men´s team suffered a 1-3 loss against Sri Lanka while they defeated Afghanistan 3-0 in the round robin matches.
In the match against Afghanistan, Deep Sawan defeated Ghulam Mustafa Bakhtiary 11-5, 11-6, 11-4 while Ajay Suwal thrashed Abdul Sami Jami 11-3, 11-1, 11-3. Likewise, Chandan Shahi outplayed Saiful Haq Jami to register Nepal´s 3-0 victory over Afghanistan.
Earlier in the first match of the round robin, Nepal lost 1-3 to Sri Lanka. Nepal´s Ajay Suwal lost 12-14, 7-11, 6-11 to Chalitha Ranjana Kariyawal while Shiva Sunder Gothe lost 14-12, 10-12, 3-11, 11-13 to Roshan Sirisena.
Nepal´s Purushottam Bajracharya defeated Dinesh Deshappriya Pitiya 11-7, 11-9, 11-5 to bring the match at 1-2 but Ajay Suwal lost to Roshan Sirisena 3-11, 7-11, 5-11 and Sri Lanka took the match home by 3-1.
In men´s team event, Nepal are in group ´B´ and will face Pakistan on Saturday.
In women´s round robin match, Nepal lost to India 0-3.
Nabita Shrestha lost to Madhurika Suhas 5-11, 6-11, 10-12 while Muna Basukala lost to Shamini Kumaresan 4-11, 6-11, 1-11. Likewise, Divya Chandrashekhar defeated Nepali veteran Geeta Thapa Magar 9-11, 11-2, 11-8, 11-5 to ensure a 3-0 win for India.
Nepal are in group ´A´ where Bangladesh are the third team. Nepal will take on Bangladesh on Sunday.
Basketball
Nepal could not materialize their dream of winning a bronze medal in basketball at the 11th South Asian Games on Friday.
Hosts Bangladesh took a revenge of their group stage loss to Nepal by winning the third place playoff on Friday. Bangladesh defeated Nepal 75-62 in the match.
Nepal had defeated Bangladesh in the group stage match to qualify for the semis and lost the semifinal to Afghanistan.
Afghanistan won the gold defeating India 65-64.
Swimming
All five Nepali swimmers performed disappointingly and all finished at the bottom of the table on Friday.
In the 200m individual medley, Sailesh Rana finished eighth as he clocked 2 minutes 35.47 seconds.
Indian swimmer Rohan Jahangir Poncha won gold in the event, whereas Heshan Bandara Unamboowe of Sri Lanka and Rubel Rana of Bangladesh claimed the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
The record 12-gold winner of the fifth National Games Karishma Karki also ended her women´s 50m butterfly final round in eighth position. She finished it in 37 seconds.
Indian swimmer Shubha Chittaranjan won gold, whereas Miniruwani Shashiprabha from Sri Lanka and Kiran Khan of Pakistan bagged the silver and bronze medals, respectively.
Meanwhile, Bibidha Rimal clocked 41.77 seconds and veteran Nayana Shakya set the timing of 42.36 seconds to be in the seventh and eighth positions of the women´s 50m breaststroke final.
Sri Lankan Minekasashmini Natasha Karunarathne of Sri Lanka clinched gold in the women´s 50m breaststroke, whereas Mahfuza Khatun and Doli Akhra, both of Bangladesh, earned silver and bronze, respectively.
Prasiddha Jung Shah also followed his compatriot´s trend of finishing eighth in 1 minute 3.48 seconds in 100m freestyle.
Aaron Agnel D´souza of India claimed gold, Md Mahfizur of Bangladesh the silver and Heshan Bandara Unamboowe of Sri Lanka the bronze medal in men´s 100m freestyle.
Earlier, Sailesh Rana qualified for the 200m individual medley final but failed to make it through to the 100m freestyle final.
Sailesh also finished eighth in 200m medley clocking 2 minutes 35.47 seconds.
Squash
Nepali squash team again suffered a humiliating 3-0 defeat during the team event of the 11th South Asian Games on Friday.
Indian team defeated Nepal during the round robin match played at the Dhaka Club. Earlier, Pakistan and Sri Lanka had also defeated Nepal by the same score.
In the first match of Friday´s draw against India, Sudip Bahadur Shahi lost to Gaurav of India 5-11, 3-11, 0-11.
Likewise, Suresh Gurung lost to Bikash Rana 2-11, 4-11 and 0-11 in the second match while the third Indian player Sudeep Janga defeated Tak Kumar Tilija 11-2, 11-3, 11-3.
Nepal will take on hosts Bangladesh in the last round-robin match.
Golf
Nepali golfer Rupak Acharya fell three positions down to the 15th on Friday from 12th on Thursday during the individual event of golf during the 11th South Asian Games.
Rupak carded 9 over 81 on Friday in the third round of the play. Rupak had carded 3 over 75 in both the first and second rounds but he did worse than that on Friday.
Rupak has a card of total 281 strokes after the completion of the third round.
Another Nepali golfer Bisnu Prasad Sharma maintained the card of 6 over 78 on the third day and his total card registered 255 strokes.
Tashi Ghale shot 11 over 83 on Friday while Tasi Tsiring scored 9 over 81. Ghale has played 253 strokes in the completion of the third round while Tsiring has played 249 strokes in total.
The golf competition played in stroke play format will end on Saturday after the completion of the fourth and final round.
Boxing
Laxman Raut has secured a bronze medal in fly weight (51 kg) category of boxing in SAG on Friday. Laxman received byes in the quarterfinal and was drawn directly in the semifinal. Laxman will fight in his semifinal bout on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Sachin Raut in light fly weight (48 kg) crashed out of the contest as he lost to Afghanistan´s Mohammad Aref Aref in the quarterfinal played at the Mohammad Ali Boxing Stadium on Friday. Sachin fought till the 3rd round of the bout and was behind by 0-3. In the meantime, referee stopped the contest as Sachin faced compulsory count limit.
Other four Nepali boxers -- Sushil Ghimire (64 kg), Ajit Gurung (60 kg), Dinesh Shrestha (57 kg) and Debendra Raj Thakuri (54 kg) -- will compete in their respective quarterfinal bouts.
Handball
Nepal missed the chance of claiming a bronze medal in handball as they lost 11-42 to Bangladesh in the 3rd place playoff played at the Handball Stadium, Dhaka on Friday.
Hosts Bangladesh played an aggressive game against the physically and technically weak Nepali side. The hosts were ahead by 23-5 in the first half of the match.
Amar Shrestha scored 4 goals while Prakash Rawal added 3 more goals for Nepal. Dinesh Bista scored 2 while Bishal Basnet and Rajendra Hamal scored a goal each.
Nepali coach Prakash Singh Thakuri said his boys gave the weakest performance of the tournament in the playoff match. "It was difficult to defeat Bangladesh and they performed weak under pressure," said Thakuri.
Wushu
Nepal claimed two bronze medals in san-sau wushu on the opening day of the game. Nepal´s gold hope Alina Chaudhary lost to Indian Panathoi Devi in the semifinal of women´s 48 kg weight category. Panathoi Devi won the match by 2-0.
Earlier in the day, Alina defeated Toshna Hanif of Pakistan 2-1 in the quarterfinal to secure the bronze medal.
Likewise, Jharana Gurung lost to Indian Sandhya Rani 2-0 in the semifinal of women´s 60 kg weight category. Earlier, she defeated Sri Lankan Malani Pathirana 2-0 to enter the semifinals and secured a bronze.
Sami Lama (women´s under 52 kg), Prem Darlami (men´s under 60 kg), and Bir Singh Tamang (men´s under 65 kg) lost in their first fights in the quarterfinals. Sami lost to Pakistani Nazib Parvez 2-1 in the quarterfinal while Prem lost to Sri Lankan Eimshiek 2-0. Likewise, Bir Singh lost to Sri Lankan Dambika 2-0 in the quarterfinal.
Wushu chief coach Pranil Dhoj Karki claimed that the players gave tough fight but failed against experienced opponents.
Nepal are participating in six san-sau events and five have disappointed Nepal. However, Nepal´s hopes of winning gold medals still continue in wushu.
Purushottam Rijal, who received byes in the quarterfinal, will play in men´s 70 kg weight category of san-sau in the semifinal on Saturday. Purushottam, who was directly drawn in the semis thus securing at least a bronze, is now at the center of Nepal´s expectation.
Likewise, Nepal are vying for four gold medals from the thaulo (performance/demonstration) event of wushu. Raju Maharjan, Aang Babu Lama, Bikash Gurung and Binita Maharjan will compete in four different events of thaulo.
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