JAKARTA, Aug 22: Nepal’s Sanju Chaudhary has improved on three national records in weightlifting at the 18th Asian Games on Tuesday. At the Weightlifting Hall in JI Expo, Chaudhary set three new national records in snatch, clean and jerk, and on total score in the women’s 53 kg weight category. 

While breaking her own national record, Chaudhary lifted 72 kg in snatch, 86 in clean and jerk, and 158 kg in total. Her previous records were 71 kg, 85 kg, and 156 kg, respectively, which she had set during the Inter-club Weightlifting Championship in Kathmandu. 

Despite her own best performance, she is at the bottom of the 12-player standing. Philippines’ Hidlin Diaz won the gold medal lifting 92 in snatch, 115 in clean and jerk and 207 in total, while Turkmenistan’s Christina Shemretova won the silver lifting 93 in snatch, 113 in clean and jerk and 206 in total. Thailand’s Surodchana Khambaole won the silver lifting 86 in snatch, 115 in clean and jerk and 201 in total. 

Basketball 
The Nepal men’s basketball team has faced two defeats in three-on-three basketball event in the Asian Games on Tuesday. At the GBK Basketball Hall in Jakarta Convention Center, Nepal lost to Japan 22-11 and against Qatar 21-8 in Group C, both in sudden death. 

The Nepali team, who had first presented a competitive performance against Japan, could not do the same in the latter part of the game. Nepal was 10-12 behind until 4.57 minutes, but gave points to Japan afterwards. 

There is a rule in three-on-three basketball that any team that first scores 21 points wins. Going by this rule Japan won the match in sudden death with 136 seconds remaining on the clock. 

While against Qatar, Nepal’s challenge ended in five minutes 53 seconds. Qatar scored 21 points with four minutes seven seconds remaining on the clock in the regulated 10 minutes. The team will now take on Maldives, Syria, and Jordan in the other group matches on Thursday. The top two teams will reach the quarterfinals. 

Archery
Gyanu Awale from the women’s category, along with Tilak Pun Magar and Roshan Nagarkoti from the men’s category have been selected for the singles recurve eliminator in archery on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Ashim Sherchan and Min Prasad Gauchan were unsuccessful in the racking round.

In the women’s category, Awale scored 286 in 36 arrows in the first round of 70 meters, while she scored 300 in the second round, taking her aggregate score to 586 out of the total 700. She was selected for Thursday’s elimination round finishing 55th among 66 participants. There is a provision of getting to the next round if a player gets inside the top 64. 

In the men’s category, Magar scored 324 in 36 arrows in the first round of 70 meters, while he scored 317 taking his aggregate score to 341 out of the total 700. This is Magar’s best score as he had not been able to score more than 340 earlier. He finished 37th among 71 participants. 

Likewise, Nagarkoti scored 318 in the first round, while he scored 319 in the second, taking his aggregate score to 637. He finished 40th. 

Wushu
Nepal’s medal winning chance in wushu has officially ended after Lumanti Shrestha lost to Thailand’s Suchaya Bualuad in checkpoint at the 18th Asian Games. Nepal had placed hope on Shrestha after she directly got a chance to play in the quarterfinals. Had she won on Tuesday’s match, she would have won a bronze medal at the least. 

Also on Tuesday, South Asian Games’ silver medal winner Yuvraj Thapa could not win a medal despite performing well in men’s taolu. He had won a silver medal two years ago at the 12th SAG scoring 9.20 more than the gold medal winner. He finished 17th among 23 players who participated. 

He left India’s Punshiva Metai Mayadlambam, Afghanistan’s Jamshed Ibram and Pakistan’s Mohammad Daud behind in the game. 

Macau’s Junhua Huwang won the gold medal scoring 9.73, Vietnam’s Kyuk Khanah Fam won the silver scoring 9.71 and Korea’s Yongman Lee won the bronze scoring 9.71. Nepal’s Sushmita Tamang will take part in women’s taolu on Wednesday. 

Paragliding
Nepal struggled on the fifth round of single’s accuracy paragliding as Bijay Gautam dropped to the 11th place with 22 points. Similarly, Sushil Gurung is on 25th place after completion of the fifth round in the men’s category, whereas Nepal’s men team is on the eighth position for combined placing. 

In the women’s category for accuracy, Trisha Shrestha is sharing the 10th position with Japanese pilot and Pratibha Bhujel is on 16th position. Nepal’s women team is on the fourth position.

Swimming
Nepal’s poor performance in swimming at the ongoing 18th Asian Games continued on Tuesday as well. Nepal’s Sirish Gurung has become unsuccessful in improving his own performance in the men’s 50-meter freestyle category. 

In the swimming event at the Aquatic Center GBK, Gurung was selected for the third place in hit two, but did not qualify for the next round. No player from his hit got selected for the last round. Gurung, who clocked a time of 26.33 seconds, was behind Pakistan’s Mohammad Yahya Khan by 0.83 seconds. 

Gurung has the national record of 50-meter freestyle event to his name. He had set the national record at the Asian Indoor and Marshal Arts Games which was held in Ashgabat in Turkmenistan last year clocking 25.43 seconds. 

Gurung will also compete in the men’s 100-meter freestyle event. 

Fencing
Giving continuation to its poor performance in Indonesia, Nepal could not bring good result in fencing as well. At the JCC Fencing Hall on Tuesday, Nepal’s Mahesh Prasad Bhat and Sanjiv Lama lost all the games of the group in men’s foil singles category.  

Bhat lost to Singapore’s Joshua Iam Lim 5-1, against Cambodia’s Thiyara Chim 5-3 and against Vietnam’s Hiu Hoang 5-1 in the Group D matches. Bhat could not add points either from his remaining two games as he succumbed to 5-0 defeats at the hands of Japan’s Takahiro Shikine and China’s Mengkai Huwang. 

Likewise, in Group E, Lama also could not get points in the two games. He was defeated by Malaysia’s Wai Shen Yung and the host Indonesia’s Mohammad Julfikar with 5-0 scorelines. Also, he lost to Qatar’s Ali Owaida 5-1, against Japan’s Tosiya Saida 5-2, and against Korea’s Son Yong Ki 5-1. He failed to get even a single point. 

Cycling
Nepal’s participation in cycling at the 18th Asian Games was only limited to gaining experience as the cyclers could not win any matches. 

Nepal, whose participation was ended yesterday in downhill category, could not mount challenge in the cross country category as men’s category participant Buddhi Bahadur Tamang and women’s category participant Laxmi Magar could not finish higher.  In mountain bike downhill category on Monday, Rajesh Magar had finished in the seventh place among nine players. 

At Khu Bun Hill in Suwung, Laxmi was lapped out by China’s Binwa. Laxmi was successful in getting the 10th place after two players could not reach their challenge in the category participated by 12 players. 

Also, in the men’s category, Tamang was lapped out. Tamang finished in the last position in the event played between 69 players. 

With the losses, Nepal’s participation in the cycling event has ended. 

 
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