KATHMANDU, Aug 21: Nepal's journey in the Olympics ended with Nisha Rawal's defeat to Épangue Gwladys of France in repechage match of women's over 67 kg taekwondo on Saturday.
The 21-year-old, who had got a wildcard entry to Rio, lost her bout 3-4 to Epangue in Rio de Janeiro.
Nisha had earned an opportunity of repechage after losing 0-2 to eventual gold medalist Shuyin Zheng of China in the preliminary round of women's 67 kg plus weight category.
Nisha, who had left for Rio with a target of winning at least one bout, has failed to do so. None of the taekwondo players from Nepal have ever won a single bout in Olympics.
Like in the past Olympics, none of the Nepali players progressed to the second round this time as well. However, swimmer Sirish Gurung and Saraswati Bhattarai of athletics set new national records in their respective games.
Saraswati clocked 4 minutes 33.94 seconds to set the new national record in 1500 meters race surpassing the previous national record of 4 minutes 34.45 seconds held by Raj Kumari Pandey set during the Asian Games in 1990.
Similarly, Sirish set new national record of 57.76 seconds in 100 meters freestyle improving his previous best mark of 58.22 seconds.
A total of seven Nepali players had participated in swimming, archery, athletics, judo and taekwondo events of Olympics held in Brazil from August 5 to 21.
Beauties, build the thick skin
