DHAKA: Eight nations will try to showcase their sports supremacy when the 11th South Asian Games officially kicks off with a grand ceremony here at the Bangabandhu National Stadium on Friday.

While India are undoubtedly the leading sports

powerhouse since the regional Games started

from 1984 in Kathmandu, the real battle, if any, has

always been among the other six nations including Nepal. While Bangladesh will have the home advantage, Afghanistan — who only joined the Games from the ninth SAF Games held in Islamabad in 2004 — are out to prove their worth.

India are far ahead of their neighbouring nations in sporting arena, the fact that they have always swept at least half of the total gold medals on offer. Nepal won a total of 55 medals (9 gold, 15 silver, 31 bronze) in the 10th SA Games in Colombo in 2006. However, Nepal were deprived of two athletics gold medals after Armyman Rajendra Bhandari tested positive for the banned substance.

Sports has always been in the least priority for the Nepal government over the years, with the budget allocated for the sector has merely been to run the National Sports Council, the sports governing body. With such a pitiable backdrop, players and coaches have done tremendous job by making their nation proud.

The standard of the Nepali sports is on the decline while at the same time the other regional nations including India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been investing heavily in the infrastructure development and sportspersons. Even Afghanistan have made a remarkable progress in sports, winning 29 medals — including six gold — in only their second participation at the regional meet in 2006.

In all, 283 Nepali players will compete in 23 disciplines in the regional meet. As always everybody here and back home will be pinning hopes on martial arts. It has been the leading discipline that has made the nation proud, be it the South Asian Games, Asian Games or the Olympics.

While the South Asian Games is where the players can realistically hope for the glory, martial arts, especially taekwondo, has also made Nepal proud by giving a few number of bronze medals in the Asian Games. Winning a medal at the Olympics may be a far cry but taekwondo is also the only discipline to have qualified for the Olympics. Retired taekwondo queen Sangina Baidya did it for the Athens Olympics while Deepak Bista accomplished it for the Beijing Olympics.

Bista, who has two Asian Games bronze medals under his belt, will be eying for the unprecedented fourth successive gold medal. If he wins gold in Dhaka, he would become the first Nepali player to earn the feat. Apart from Bista, legendary marathoner Baikuntha Manandhar has won it three times in a row.

Other medal hopefuls are 10th SA Games taekwondo gold medallist Manita

Shahi and silver medallist Ayesha Shakya. Other taekwondo players Yan Kumari Chaulagain, Sabina Maharjan and Kumar Manandhar are also equally capable of winning the medal.

The 10th South Asian Games gold medallist Kushal Shrestha will lead the karate team including the likes of experienced Binod Shakya and Suvadra Shrestha. Likewise, Nepal can also expect gold

in wushu and judo. The

10th South Asian Silver medallist Debu Thapa will lead the Judo contingent which includes players like Parshuram Chaudhary, Ramesh Magar, Deepak Krishna Kumal, Kaluman Tamang and Rajan Joshi.

Purushottam Rijal, Bir Singh Tamang, Prem Chandra Darlami, Bikash Gurung, Raju Maharjan and Aang Banu Lama will be attempting to reclaim the glory Raj Kumar Rasaili and Bina Khadka Lama had tasted at the 10th South Asian Games. While Raj Kumar was forced out this time due to the exclusion of his weight category, Bina is away from the country.

Rajendra Bhandari will be the player to watch in athletics. After his 2006 doping disgrace, he will be keen on erasing his image by reclaiming the glory. Bhandari had won 5,000 metre steeplechase and 1,500m gold in Colombo but this time around he will be competing as a long distance runner. He will run along with fellow Armyman Arjun Basnet, who is the hot favourite after his silver in Colombo (2006).

Nepal Army weightlifter Kamal Bahadur Adhikari will be looking to repeat the success of the 10th South Asian Games where he won the first ever regional gold medal of the country. Nepal are yet to win football gold since the first SAF Games in 1983 in Kathmandu and sixth SAF Games in Dhaka in 1993. But they have been performing reasonably well so far, albeit with no results. With India certain to field their weakened team in

the U-23 tournament, Nepal have a fair chance

to reclaim the glory this time around after their bronze medal finish last time in Colombo.

Nepal were already out of contention in cricket, the first time the game was included in SA Games, until world cricketing powerhouse India pulled out. Now at least they can expect a bronze with only three Test nations — hosts Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka — in fray apart from Maldives. Nepal will also try to impress in two other newly included disciplines — golf and basketball. However, playing against the likes of India and Pakistan, Nepal would certainly look to avoid embarrassing defeats in hockey, the event which is rarely played in the country.

Overall, Nepal would certainly look to maintain the medal-tally of 2006 if not better that mark. Nepal’s best finish at the regional meet was in the eighth SAF Games in 1999 at home where they won a whopping 31 gold medals finishing second behind India.