Rimal finished the distance in 3 minutes 50.15 seconds to advance into the final round. In course of the race, he also achieved his personal best timing. His previous personal best timing was 3 minutes 50.76 seconds.[break]
Rimal had finished seventh among 20 athletes in the first heat. He will compete in the final on Tuesday.
Gop Bahadur Adhikari holds the national record of 3 minutes 46.63 seconds in men´s 1500 m race. Adhikari had set the record during the Sixth South Asian Games held in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1993.
According to coach Pushparaj Ojha, Rimal´s performance was satisfactory though he failed to set a new record.
"Rimal has bettered his timing and qualified for the final, and I am satisfied with his performance," coach Ojha, who is also a former Olympian said, adding, "He performed as per my expectations and his tuning shows that he could do better in future."
In men´s 110 m hurdles, Dhirendra Chaudhary crashed out from the first heat. National record holder Chaudhary clocked 16.86 second to cover the distance. He finished 13th among 16 sprinters. Chaudhary has his personal best and national record of 16.31 seconds which he set during the Fifth National Games held in the capital last year.
Another defeat in boxing
Nepal suffered another defeat in boxing as Sanju Lama crashed out from the women´s 51 kg weight category in the 16th Asian Games (Asiad) on Monday. Lama was humbled 10-0 by world champion Ren Quan of the host country, China.
Lama was taken aback when she faced the world champion in her very first bout as she looked helpless in the rout. Quan had won gold in the world championships held about one and a half months ago in Barbados.
“It was beyond our capacity to beat the newly crowned world champion in front of her home crowd,” said Nepali team coach Prachanda Sharma. “I had not expected Sanju to win this match, but she got an opportunity to gain some experience. I´m glad for that. I have no regrets over the loss. She played her best but lost by a wide margin because she was fighting against the world champion,” added the coach.
Nepal now have only one category left in boxing and it has already confirmed a medal. Deepak Maharjan, who is assured of at least a bronze after his 4-0 quarterfinal victory over Thailand´s Sukkhum Kriangkai on Friday, will take on Indian boxer Deepak Kumar in men´s 81 kg on Wednesday.
Maharjan is the only Nepali athlete who has confirmed a medal so far in the ongoing Asiad.
Nepal climb archery world ranking
Nepal have climbed up four positions in the Asian archery rankings on Monday after they defeated Asian archery powerhouse Iran in the 16th Asiad in Guangzhou, China.
Nepal, who had finished 12th in the qualifiers, scored 207 out of 240 points from 24 arrows while Iran were limited to 200 points. Iran had secured fifth place in the qualifying round held two days ago.
Despite taking an unexpected lead over Iran and booking a place in the last eight, Nepal, however, failed to make it through to the semifinals.
In the quarterfinal, Nepali team suffered a 27-point defeat at the hands of India as Nepal accumulated 194 points against India´s 221. The Nepali team included Asim Sherchan, Jeet Bahadur Moktan and Ramesh Bhattachan.
Nepali coach Kishor Gurung cited lack of experience for Nepal´s low performance in the quarterfinal compared to the previous round (round of 16). "Our boys do not have sufficient international experience. They were unable to give their best performance in front of a large number of television cameras. They were also mentally nervous to play against India. Had they not been nervous they could have had a better score against India as well," Gurung added.
Gurung considers Nepal´s improvement in rankings as the principal achievement. "We were in 12th place and now we have leapfrogged to eighth position. Our main target in the Asiad was to improve the rankings, and we achieved it," he said.
Nepal, who are in the 46th spot in the world rankings of International Archery, have also hopes of climbing up in the world rankings. If Nepal climb up the world rankings to 32nd position, they will get direct entry to the 2012 Olympics.
Rajkarnikar elected AKF senior VP
President of the internationally recognized Nepal Kabaddi Association Sunil Rajkarnikar has been elected as the senior vice-president of the Asian Kabaddi Federation (AKF) for a four-year tenure. Rajkarnikar was elected to the post with the highest number of votes from among 10 vice-presidential candidates during the election held in Guangzhou, China.
As per the provision of AKF, the candidate with the highest vote will be elected as the senior vice-president. Rajkarnikar got the votes of all 36 representatives from 18 nations of Asia.
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