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Olympics hope ends for Nepali taekwondo

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KATHMANDU, Nov 27: The last hope of Nepali taekwondo players to qualify for the London Olympics 2012 came to an end on Sunday as all four Nepali participants failed in the Asian Qualification held in Thailand.



Manita Shahi, who received bye in the qualification tournament and directly reached semifinal in women´s under-67kg, lost to Dieu Linh Chu Hoang of Vietnam. Shahi, then, lost to Kazakhstan´s Gulanafis Altmukhambetova in the third place play-off. Both of her opponents booked the Olympics berth.[break]



In women´s under-57kg, Ayasha Shakya could not cross the second round of the qualification tournament. Shakya defeated Sze Ngo Wu of Hong Kong in the first round but lost to Mayu Hamada of Japan in the second round.



Likewise, Rohit Tamang lost to Cambodian players in his first match of men´s under-58kg. Ashish Maharjan has also lost his second round match of the men´s under-68kg on Saturday.



Nepali taekwondo players had missed the World Qualification of taekwondo for the London Olympics as Nepal Taekwondo Association failed to send them to Baku, Azerbaijan on July 3, 2011 because of financial crunch.



Taekwondo aces Sangina Baidya and Deepak Bista are the only Nepali athletes to reach Olympics through the qualification tournament. Baidya was qualified in 2004 Athens Olympics and 2008 Beijing Olympics.



Altogether 99 players from the 30 Asian Countries have participated in the tournament while players of only 13 countries qualified for the London Olympics. Three players each from Jordan and Uzbekistan booked the tickets for the London Olympics while seven countries clinched two tickets. The seven are Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Japan, Vietnam and Kazakhstan.



China, Iran, Lebanon and Chinese Taipei each grabbed one spot. Korean players have already booked Olympics berths through World Qualification.



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