Among nine injured players Debu and two other judo players -- Kaluman Tamang and Ramesh Magar -- have been admitted to the hospital while others have been discharged after medical checkup. [break]
The three hospitalized athletes are almost surely out of the game. Olympian Debu was the silver medalist of the previous edition of the SAG held in Colombo. Debu was to compete in the 63 kg weight category of judo in Dhaka. Likewise, Kaluman was to compete in 100 kg weight category while Ramesh in 66 kg.
Others injured in the incident are Gyan Bahadur Shrestha and Gopal Bahadur Shrestha of weightlifting, Parshuram Chaudhary, Deepak Krishna Shrestha, Radha Devi Rai, Rajan Joshi of judo. Dhyan Basnet, the judo official, was also injured.
After the incident, which took place at around noon, the players were rushed to the Square Hospital.
Debu, Kaluman and Ramesh broke down in tears after the incident. “We entered the lift from the seventh floor but fell unexpectedly,” Debu recollected.
Kaluman was unable to talk to reporters but he was asking doctors if he could still participate in the games.
Weightlifting coach Tilak Raut informed that two injured weightlifters would take part in their events. However, Raut doubted if the players would be able to put up a good performance. “Two of my players will take part in the game but I can´t vouchsafe about their performance following the incident. They are in trauma,” said Raut. Team Nepal´s doctors and judo officials have not yet declared the status of the injured players officially.
The lift broke down and fell down from the fourth floor. The hotel claimed that the lift fell down due to overload. Member secretary of National Sports council Hari Babu Chaudhary was in the same hotel when the accident took place but he didn´t visit the injured players.
It took almost 20 minutes for Nepali players and officials to arrange for an ambulance to rush those injured to the hospital.
The hotel is just in-front of the Banga Bandhu Stadium and Nepali players and officials were placed in the hotel.
“The hotel does not even have basic services. We have been kept here and our authorities are not responding to complaints,” said Deepak Shrestha, representative of the Nationals and Internationals Players Association Nepal.
He complained that players have not been given proper facilities in Dhaka. “A small carelessness of the 11th SAG management committee and Nepali Save the Mission cost Nepali players a lot. The players are in anguish not only because they are injured but also that their dream of participating in the SAG has been shattered.”
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