On the fifth and final day of athletics competition, NPC added five golds to cement its grip at the summit while APF had to settle for the two golds to finish overall second with 11 golds. [break]
On Friday, Arjun Dhakal of APF won the men´s marathon with a timing of 2 hours 28 minutes 09 seconds to clinch gold.
“I am happy because I improved my own record. Although the timing was not my personal best, it was better than the Fifth National Games,” said Dhakal, who did not show any signs of weariness after completing the marathon.
Narayan Deshar of Nepal Police Club (NPC) secured the second position with a timing of 2:29:39 hours while Khum Bahadur Khatri of APF was third clocking 2:29:56.
Krishneshwari Sintakala of APF won the women´s marathon with a timing of 3 hours 11 minutes 23 seconds. Pushpa Bhandari (3:25:17) of Mid Western Region and Sonu Jaya Rai (3:32:46) of APF finished second and third respectively.
Siddhant Adhikari´s decision to shift from 400m to 800m paid off as he won gold in men´s 800m race with a timing of 2 minutes 00.04 seconds.
“There is no historic record of success of Nepali sprinters so I decided to switch to middle distance race,” said Adhikari.
The 20-year-old player who joined Nepal Police Force three years ago says that his main target to win gold is the upcoming South Asian Games.
“I was confident of winning this race. I would like to dedicate my victory to my coach Evan Ranjit,” added Adhikari.
Rishi Ram Sapkota of Western Region finished second with a timingof 2:02:09 minutes while Radheshyam Kawa of NPC settled for bronze clocking 2:03:02.
Manmati Bista of NPC made her debut in National Games winning gold in women´s 800m race with a timing of 2 minutes 25.03 seconds.
Manisha Adhikari (2:25:04) of Western Region and Laxmi Pandey (2:28:08) of Western Region secured silver and bronze respectively.
Despite injury, Keshari Chaudhary of NPC won two golds on Friday.
The 20-year-old athlete, who holds the national records in high jump and triple jump, succeeded in winning triple jump covering a distance of 11.07m but was unable to break her personal best and national record of 11.67m as she was nursing her left ankle which got dislocated during a training session some weeks ago.
“I was confident of winning triple jump because I don´t have to exert pressure on my injured leg in triple jump,” said Chaudhary, who was walking awkwardly due to pain after competing in the event.
She then went on to win gold in women´s 4X100 m relay. Other members of the winning team were Sabitri Nepali, Manamati Bista and Aarati Pathak, who completed the race in 52.9 seconds to stun title favorite APF comprising Pramila Rijal, Sabita Chauhdary, Dil Maya Karki and Sunita Tamang. APF finished second with a timing of 53.9 s.
NPC suffered a major setback in men´s 4X100m relay as Central Region and APF both finished ahead of it. Central Region clocked 44.7 seconds for gold while APF (44.8) and NPC (45.3) settled for silver and bronze.
Dhruba Narayan Urab of NPC won gold in men´s triple jump covering a distance of 13.5m. Yan Sajan Sunar (13.1) of Mid Western Region trailed behind Urab to claim silver while Bal Krishna Chaudhary (12.95) of APF settled for bronze.
Mid Western Region secured the third position with three golds. Central region won a total of three golds but finished fourth, Western Region grabbed two golds while Far Western Region and PLA finished with one gold each.
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