Doha, December 15:

Nepal’s dismal performance at the 15th Asian Games ended with once again only taekwondo being able to garner the national prestige. Deepak Bista, Manita Shahi and Ayesha Shakya gave one bronze medals each in taekwondo.

Nepal felt the taste of medals at the 10th Asian Games in Seoul despite taking part from the fifth edition held at Bangkok in 1966. And it was taekwondo and boxing that gave Nepal four bronze medals each. Ever since, except for the 11th edition held in Beijing where Nepal won only one bronze (boxing), taekwondo has won medals in the Games. Karate is the only other sport that has won Asian honour along with taekwondo and boxing. The glory days of Nepali boxing have lost in the horizon and karate is moving in its footsteps.

Apart from taekwondo, the only other discipline that showed some prospect here were karate and chess. The two-time South Asian Games karate gold medallist Deepak Shrestha and the 10th SA Games women’s Individual Kata gold medallist Sulochana Sijakhwa showed their fighting spirit. Both Shrestha and Sijakhwa, however, lost the final bronze medal contests.

“We have potential to win but it alone can’t help,” said karate coach Narayan Dev Kunwar Rana. “Had only our players have the opportunity of foreign training, we could have taken something back home,” Rana added. Rana said that players needed to have regular international exposure not only to gain experience but also to get updated of the changes in the techniques and trend in the sport.

Apart from karate, chess performed better than the rest of the other sports in its Asian Games debut. Athletics, badminton, bodybuilding, boxing, golf, judo, shooting, soft tennis, weightlifting, wrestling, and wushu were a total disappointment. Especially, weight-lifting, athletics and wushu — that gave Nepal gold medals at the 10th SAG — failed miserably. They were disappointing not because they could not win medals but because they were hardly the competitors for the East Asian opponents.

The outstanding part of the Nepali chess was that Bilam Lal beat a Grand Master (Talib Moosa Ibrahim of UAE) and Fide Master (Husain Ayyad of Bahrain) while drawing against International Master Abdulla Hanan Al-Hammadi of UAE in the Rapid Chess.

Despite Nepal finishing lower down the table, Shrestha accomplished personal victory here in Doha. He won three games each in the Men’s Rapid Chess and Mixed Team’s Classical event. Surbir Lama also registered two wins in Men’s Rapid Chess and held International Master Hammadi of UAE to a draw apart from three wins in Mixed Team’s Classical Chess. Likewise, teenager Monalisa Khamboo won two games in Women’s Rapid Chess and three in Mixed Team’s Classical Chess.

Players got the feel of international exposure and beyond that there was nothing positive in Nepal’s participation.

Nepal had sent strong contingent with most of the players having won gold, silver or bronze medals at the 10th SAG but they were hardly a match against the East Asian opponents. Nepal had won nine gold, 15 silver and 31 bronze medals in the Colombo SAG but winning three bronze medals alone was in itself an uphill task here in Doha. Nepal bagged three bronze medals in the previous edition and it was none other than taekwondo that gave Nepal the honours.