Lalitpur, August 18

Olympian Saraswoti Bhattarai won the 1,500m gold medal in the CoAS Trophy here at the Nepali Army Sports Complex here today.

The 16 Brigade Corporal Bhattarai, who set a new national record of four minutes and 33.94 seconds breaking the 16-year-old mark in Rio Olympic Games last year, finished the race with a new Army record of 4:44.80 to win the gold medal. No 13 Brigade’s Gunner Sanu Maya Karki came second in 4:51.20 ahead of 16 Brigade’s Lance Corporal Laxmi Pandey (4:53.70).

In men’s section, Gunner Umesh Masyangdi Magar of No 13 Brigade won gold medal in 4:02.12, while Pte Ramji Basnet (4:03.59) of Western Division and Sgt Kalyan Baniya (4:04.65) of Special Forces Brigade were second and third respectively.

In men’s 400m race, Corporal Som Kumal of No 16 Brigade won the gold medal with the Army record timing of 47.94 seconds, whereas Sgt Sarvesh Lamichhane (50.13) of Special Forces and L/C Jeevan Chaudhary (50.63) of North-western Division bagged silver and bronze respectively. In women’s section, Cpl Krishna Chaudhary of No 16 Brigade set the new Army record of 59.80sec on her way to winning the gold, while CPL Sangita Meche (1:00.28) of Mid-Division and Pte Tulsha Khatri (1:02.80) of Western Division came second and third respectively.

Players from 10 teams — six Divisions, Supporting Arms and Special Forces — are taking part in the tournament which features athletics, swimming, boxing, taekwondo, volleyball, basketball, football and kabbadi events.

Earlier, Chief of the Army Staff Gen Rajendra Chhetri inaugurated the event which was introduced a decade ago with the objective of enhancing Spirit de Corps — a feeling of pride and mutual loyalty shared by the members of a group — and to produce quality athletes.

Meanwhile, CoAS Chhetri handed over the insignia to 13 differently-able players of TAC who got promotion for making the Nepali Army proud with their performance in various national and international events.