Rio de Janeiro, August 21 Nepal wrapped up the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with two national records and a couple of notable performances. The XXXI Games were by no means different for Nepali athletes in terms of participation. They have been taking part in the biggest sporting extravaganza through wild cards and Universiality Places. Only two players, Sangina Baidya and Deepak Bista, both from taekwondo, have the honour of winning berths through qualifying since four boxers and two athletes took part in Nepal’s first Olympic Games in 1964 in Tokyo. A total of seven players were in the Nepali squad this time around, two each in athletics and swimming and one apiece in judo, archery and taekwondo. Nepal made headlines before the start of the Games when swimmer Gaurika Singh became the youngest athlete of the Rio Olympics. The young sensation, who had stole the limelight in 12th South Asian Games by winning four individual medals including a silver, was 13 years and 255 days when she hit the waters in 100m backstroke heats on August 7. She failed in her ultimate target of breaking the national mark despite winning the three-player heat but that did not stop her from earning fame in international arena. Shirish Gurung became the first-ever Nepali swimmer to break the national record in Olympics. Gurung improved his own mark in 100m freestyle two days later when he covered distance in 57.76 seconds, breaking the previous best mark of 58.22. He also featured in top three junior best performing swimmers in his event, in a list prepared by a website — SwimSwam — including the swimmers of up to 18 years old. Judoka Phupu Lhamu Khatri completed her mission of playing the full four-minute bout against Cuba’s Maricet Espinosa in the women’s below-63kg weight category. Saraswati Bhattarai brought a wave in Rio. Against all odds, the Tribhuvan Army Club athlete shattered the 26-year-old national record in 1,500m race at the Olympic Stadium. The 23-year-old Bhattarai completed the distance in four minutes and 33.94 seconds, breaking the mark of 4:34.47 held by Raj Kumari Pandey since 1990 Beijing Asian Games. She broke the record by less than a second but ran more than six seconds faster than her personal best of 4:40.03. Another athlete, Hari Kumar Rimal faltered in his attempt to set a new mark in 5,000m race, while archer Jit Bahadur Muktan lost his first-round match against Indian opponent in the men’s Individual Recurve. Taekwondo player Nisha Rawal had vowed to win at least a bout in the Olympic Games but her dreams were shattered when she was drawn against world champion Chinese player Zheng Shuyin. However, she fought hard and faced a 2-0 defeat in the closely-contested bout in the above-67 weight category. Rawal earned a second chance after Shuyin made it to the final, but again faced former world champion and 200 Beijing Olympic Games bronze medallist, Glwadys Epangue of France in the first match of Repechage round. Rawal fought well and levelled the scores at 3-3 after the second round but conceded a late point to go down 4-3. Nepal made their 11th appearance in the Olympics and are still searching for a maiden medal. Taekwondo player Bidhan Lama had won one, but that was when the sport was included as an exhibition event in 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. Boxer Bishnu Bahadur Singh still remains the lone Nepali athlete to win a match in Olympics and advance to the second round. He had beaten Paraguay’s Sixto Vera 5-0 in the below-51kg weight category bout in Seoul. But the situation will not remain the same if we are to believe Nepal Olympic Committee President Jeevan Ram Shrestha. “We have been taking part in Olympics since 1964 and it is high time we prepare for medal now,” said Shrestha, who was satisfied with Nepal’s performance in Rio. “We got two national records and others also performed well. The players did their well,” he said. “We got to learn a lot of things from Rio participation. We have to identify a couple of individual sports and prepare accordingly. If we focus in certain sports which have possibilities in Nepal, we can definitely challenge for medal in Tokyo. ” Asked about the possible sports disciplines, Shrestha said: “We are yet to finalise the events but I have seen light weight events in weightlifting, shooting, archery and canoeing are the sports we need to focus in apart from judo, taekwondo, archery, karate and long distance events in athletics.” Shrestha said the country needed to move ahead with concrete planning with support from all quarters of the society. “If we can do that, the Tokyo 2020 will not be merely participation but will be a dream which can be materialised,” he added.

@maheshach