Our sportspeople, if given the opportunity to hone their skills and talents under the right conditions, will be able to go a long way in sporting glory

The thirty-first edition of the modern Olympic Games concluded, on August 21 Brazil time, as in previous editions of the Games, with several new Olympic records made, with a number of national records broken by sportspeople, and many personal records bettered.

The four-yearly mega sports show reminds people of the world that a can-do approach involving determination, perseverance, hard work and discipline make impossible-sounding feats possible.

All aspiring people, particularly young ones, can get this message from watching the Olympic Games. A combination of the same qualities will help propel anybody forward in all areas.

The other message that comes from the Olympiad is one of a global village, and fraternity, goodwill and healthy competition among nations and people of the world to bring out the best out of man and make this planet a better place to live in.

A third lesson from the Olympic Games is that citizens from any country, big or small, strong or weak, rich and poor, can make it big at the Olympiad as a look at the medal tallies of successive Olympiads show.

Of course, support from government and society will provide a big boost.

We in Nepal should therefore jettison the attitude that has always characterized our participation in the Olympics -- medal hopes are nil and the best our sportspeople can do is to improve on their personal records or break our national records.

First of all, we need to think anew if our sports are to touch new heights.

Nepal needs to identify the sports in which it can do better soon. Nepal has to set its medium-term and long-term priorities. Martial arts, for example, could give Nepal fruit soon.

At Rio 2016 Nepal sent seven sportspeople to take part – two each in swimming and athletics and one each in judo, archery and taekwondo.

With just two exceptions, in taekwondo, since Nepal started participating with the Tokyo Olympic Games in 1964, Nepali sportspeople have secured their places in each Olympiad through wild cards and Universality Places.

Under these circumstances, it is unfair to expect stellar performance from our sportspeople who have received not much from the sports authorities and government in terms of a congenial sporting environment, constant training, and other necessary facilities and incentives.

At Rio, our athletes made two national records – swimmer Shirish Gurung bettering his own 100m freestyle mark and the 23-year-old Saraswati Bhattarai smashed a 26-year-old national record in 1,500m race; Gaurika Singh, who has not completed her 14th birthday yet, is a swimmer of promise who can make big strides in the future; judoka Phupu Lhamu Khatri lasted till the end of the full-four minutes of the under-63kg bout; taekwondo player Nisha Rawal gave a close fight, despite being drawn against the world champion Chinese player and again drawn against a former world champion.

Even so she missed winning a bronze by just a point.

However, Hari Kumar Rimal failed to make a new mark in the 5,000m race, and archer Jit Bahadur Muktan lost his first-round match.

All this shows that our sportspeople, if given the opportunity to hone their skills and talents under the right conditions, will be able to go a long way in sporting glory.

Protect heritage

The police have successfully nabbed three suspects for the burglary which took place at Buddha Mandir at Lalitptur on July 25.

Ancient idols and artifacts were seized by the police and they are now on display at the Metropolitan Police Range at Jawlakhel in Lalitpur.

The mastermind of the operation however is at large. It is high time that all possible means were taken to foil idol lifting and selling.

The police should keep a strict vigil to ensure that these are not stolen. The three burglars have been charged under the Ancient Monument Preservation Act, 1956.

Those who carry out illegal trade in idols and artifacts and paintings and manuscripts which are more than 100 years old with religious and cultural value are being punished as per this law.

The law should preferably provide for sterner punishment so as to discourage those who are involved in these criminal activities.

After the major earthquakes last year many idols and artifacts have been found to be missing.

These are the proud heritage of the country and all those concerned should see to it that these are not lost as they are priceless.