Departmental teams dominate

Kathmandu, November 9

Departmental sides Tribhuvan Army Club and Nepal Police Club claimed four each gold medals on the opening day of the 50th National Karate Tournament held under NSC Championship here today.

Out of the nine gold medals on offer on the first day, another departmental side Nepal APF Club won the remaining one.

Parsuram Bastola, who recently joined TAC from APF, bagged the individual kata gold medal, while Gubiram Ale of APF was second. Manoj Maharjan of Central Region and Monday Kaji Shrestha of NPC came third.

NPC karateka Nirmala Tamang won the women’s section gold medal ahead of Bimala Nepali of Western Region, while Elina Thapa Magar of Mid-west and Jyoti Giri of Central were joint third.

TAC claimed the men’s team kata gold, while Far-western Region was second and APF and Central were joint third. In women’s section, NPC came first ahead of Central, while APF and Far-western finished joint third.

In kumite, Akash Pal of TAC beat Balram Adhikari of Western Region in the 45kg final, while Sagar BK of Far-western and Suraj Nepal of Mid-western were joint third. In 50kg, TAC karateka Mani Kumar Sunuwar defeated Sonam Lama of NPC in final, whereas APF’s Laxman Tamang and Eastern’s Bibek Thapa came joint third.

In women’s 50kg final, Anu Adhikari of APF won the gold medal beating Urmila Darlami of Western Region, while Priti Basnet of Eastern and Kopila Bista of NPC came joint third. Also, NPC’s Mallika Thapa won the 55kg section gold after she defeated Manisha Chaudhary of APF in the final, while Anjali BK of Western and Vidhyakala Rai of Eastern won bronze medals.

A total of 184 players from five development regions and three departmental teams are taking part in the tournament organised by Nepal Karate Federation under the sponsorship of Samjhana Laboratory Clinic. The organisers also felicitated former chief coach Mahesh Kumar Shrestha and ex-assistant coach Akbar Shah during the opening ceremony.