Kathmandu, August 26

Lifter Tara Devi Pun shattered national record, while paragliding maintained their third position after the second round in the 18th Asian Games in Jakarta today.

The 12th South Asian Games bronze medallist, Pun bettered her own marks in women’s 75kg weight category. She lifted 74kg in snatch and 101kg in clean and jerk for the total of 175kg. She had set the national records of 73kg, 97kg and 170kg during the Asian Games selection tournament two months ago.

Pun lifted 70kg in first attempt and failed to lift 74kg in second attempt. But she was able to break the national mark in snatch in third attempt when she lifted 74kg. In clean and jerk, she lifted 93kg in first attempt, broke the national record of 97kg by lifting 98kg in her second attempt and bettered that mark by lifting 101kg in third attempt.

A total of four lifters represented Nepal in the Asian Games. Sanju Chaudhary and Kamal Bahadur Adhikari also broke national records in their respective categories, while Bikash Thapa failed to leave his mark in the Asiad.

After the day’s results, Nepal have completed participation in 18 out of 29 sports disciplines and are yet to touch medal in Jakarta. While taekwondo returned empty-handed for the third time in a row, swimmers even failed to meet the expectations of breaking a couple of national records. Wushu, wrestling, football, kabbadi, cycling, pancak silat, fencing, shooting, tennis, volleyball, archery, badminton, golf, sport climbing and basketball also just completed the formality of participation in Indonesia.

Table Tennis

Nepal faced defeats in both men’s and women’s team events of table tennis on Sunday. The men’s team of Amar Lal Malla, Syantoo Shrestha and Deep Saun lost 3-0 at the hands of China and Malaysia in Group A matches. The women’s team of Nabita Shrestha, Swechhya Nembang and Rabina Maharjan suffered identical 3-0 losses against Malaysia and Singapore in five-team Group D.

Boxing

Nepali golfers failed to put up impressive performance in the Asian Games golf tournament at the Pondok Indah Golf and Country Club in Jakarta. Sukra Bahadur Rai was the best among the four players but he also finished well below 50. Rai shot nine-over 81 for the 72-hole total score of 27-over 315 to finish 58th in the 86-man field. Tanka Bahadur Karki was 60th with 29-over after he played five-over 77 in the final round. Prithvi Malla (77) came 74th with 36-over 324, while Ajit BK shared the 78th position at 39-over 327. Keita Nakajima of Japan won gold medal with the total score of 11-under 277, while South Korea’s Seungtaek Oh (278) bagged silver and China’s Cheng Jin (279) came third. In team event, Nepal finished 17th among 20 nations. Nepal posted the total score of 87-over 951 in 72-hole contest. Japan, China and South Korea won top three spots respectively.