Doha, December 9:

The hope of Nepal claiming the third medal in taekwondo now rests on Ayesha Shakya after Sanjeev Pradhan lost his men’s 62kg bout against Hani Al Shammari of Kuwait at Qatar Sports Club Indoor Hall.

Sanjeev lost the preliminary bout 0-1 against Shammari. He had an opportunity to extend the game in the third round when the Kuwati’s point was deducted but Sanjeev could not score a point. Sanjeev conceded a point each in the first two rounds before Shammari was penalised a point in the third round. The third remained scoreless. Ayesha, who has a first round bye in the women’s 59kg category, will play her quarter-final match on Sunday.

In Golf, Yalember Adhikari improved a lot in the second round of the men’s individual event at the Doha Golf Club on Saturday. Adhikari, who had eight over 80 on Friday, shot one under 71. He is tied with Zhipeng Fan of China for the 40th with a total of 151. Adhikari played a brilliant round of golf with one-under 35 in the front nine and even par in the back nine for one under.

Shivaram Shrestha carded five over 77 for the 48th with a total of 155. Shivaram had carded six over 78 in the first round. CB Bhandari lies 63rd with 164 a 10 over 82, the same he had in the first round. Skipper Tashi Ghale played horribly on second day with 14 over 86 to finish 67th. Ghale also had a round of 14 over on Friday. Do Hoon Sr Kim of Korea leads with 10 under 134 afte the second round.

In the team event, Nepal currently lie at the 14th position. With the total score of 470 after the second round. Nepal improved a bit in the second round after scoring 230 today. They had scored 240 in the first round on Friday.

In Chess, Monalisa Khamboo won a match while Bilam Lal Shrestha and Surbir Lama drew their matches as Nepal opened their accounts in the mixed team classical event in the third round on Friday. Played under the Swiss League system, the Nepali team earned a total of two points against Palestine.

Khamboo defeated Shadia Jardat to collect one point while Shrestha and Lama drew with Atta Taamra and Talal Shoubaita respectively earning half points each. Japan are at the bottom with 1.5 points.

“This is something very great for me. I played better than I ever played before. This is my first win and I believe my game is improving every day,” said Khamboo. The Indian team of Sasikiran Krishnan, Harikrishna Pentala and Humpy Koneru leads with 7.5 points while Vietnam (7) are second.

Also on Friday, Kanchhi Maya Koju finished last (seventh) after Bahrain’s Taba Naser Waked did not start in the women’s 10,000-metre. Koju completed the race in 37 minutes 59.76 seconds, two minutes more than her personal best set while winning the silver in 10th SAG in Colombo. Japan’s Kayoko Fukushi won gold in 31:29.38 and Bahrain’s Kareema Selah (32:17.14) and Hiromi Ominami (32:18.02) of Japan bagged silver and bronze respectively.

Bista determined to continue

DOHA: Nepali ace taekwonodo player Dipak Bista was determined to continue with the sport after his bronze medal in the 78kg category.

After adding his second medal at the Asian Games on Friday, Bista said that he would participate in the next Asian Games as well as the 2008 Olympic Games. Bista had also won a bronze medal at the Busan Asian Games in 2002. “I will continue as long as my body permits me,” Bista said.

Bista is the only Nepali to win twice in the Asian Games and second to win three consecutive gold medals in the South Asian Games.

Before coming to Doha, Nepal had won 18 medals — 11 in taekwondo, five in boxing and two in karate. Taekwondo player Sabita Rajbhandari is the only one to win silver medal at this level.

Apart from Bista, Manita Shahi also won a bronze medal here in the women’s 63kg category. — HNS