Doha, December 5:

It was yet another disappointing day for Nepal at the 15th Asian Games when boxer Sushil Ghimire lost in the second round bout. Ghimire, who made it to the second round after a bye in the draw, lost against Sri Lankan Wakadapola Wasala 11-19 in the Super Light (64kg) weight category at the Aspire Hall. The Sri Lankan took early advantage leading 5-1 in the first round. Ghimire kept his cool in the second with 3-3 points but failed to recover the first-round deficit and was outplayed heavily. He managed seven in the last two rounds, while his opponent earned 11.

“The result could have been closer but my opponent opted defensive strategy after taking early lead,” Ghimire said. “I should have followed the defensive strategy as he did but I went offensive against him,” he added.

Ghimire also found his excuse saying that he had a very short time for preparation after the 10th South Asian games in August in Colombo where he won silver medal, and on top of that his opponent was also the 10th SAG silver medallist. Wasala accepted that the fight was good and had to work really hard.

In the group stage of men’s singles soft tennis, both Shyam Kumar Lama and Krishna Bahadur Raut won and lost one match each — making early exit from the event — at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex. Both the players were ousted from the event.

Lama went down against Chun Yen Wang of Chinese Taipei 4-0 (0-4, 5-7, 1-4, 1-4) and defeated Negmatullo Rajabaliev of Tajikistan in straight sets 5-3, 6-4, 4-0, 4-2. Raut registered a marathon win against Michael John Enriquez of Philippines 4-3 (3-5, 2-4, 4-0, 5-3, 2-4, 6-4, 7-5).

The pairs of Abhisek Aman Jha/Raju Patuwar and Krishna Bahadur Raut/Dipendra Thapa will play their men’s doubles matches on December 7.

Shuttler Sumina Shrestha’s match against A Xing has been rescheduled for Wednesday. Due to the heavy rainfall on Saturday and possibility of another leakage in the roof of the Aspire Hall, the badminton events were postponed.