DHAKA; The 10th South Asian Games weightlifting gold medallist Kamal Bahadur Adhikari bettered his snatch national record but agonizingly the lifter returned empty-handed after he was handed a wash-out verdict in the Clean & Jerk section at the National Sports Council Gymnasium during the 11th South Asian Games here today.

With only three lifters in fray in the 69kg category, Adhikari was certain to win bronze had he been able to complete the formality in Clean & Jerk. He first lifted 112kg in snatch but failed in his second attempt at the 117kg. He still had a chance left and succeeded to record new national record. He held the snatch national record of 115kg set during the fifth National Games in Kathmandu.

Mani Ur Rehman of Pakistan, on the other hand, lifted four kilograms more than Adhikari. The Pakistani, who finished second when Adhikari won gold in Colombo, was given the first go in Clean & Jerk. He made a successful 152kg attempt and forced Adhikari to go for the same weight which he failed in all three attempts. Adhikari had already lifted 154kg during the Beijing Olympics.

Rehman won the silver with a total lift of 269 while Commonwealth champion Udanage Chintanage of Sri Lanka won gold with a lift of 291kg (129 in snatch, 162kg in Clean & Jerk).

Stunned by the result emotional Adhikari said he had disappointed the entire nation. "My country had expected a lot from me. I apologise for my failure," added the heartbroken lifter. Knowing that the commonwealth champion Chintanage was participating in the 69kg category, the Nepal Weightlifting Association (NWA) had earlier filed a request to switch the weight category of Adhiakri. The tournament rule permits a player to compete in the overweight category but the local organisers denied the request.

In another category, Hem Shankar Chaudhary lifted a total 175kg to finish fourth in the men's 56kg weight category. Chaudhary lifted 75kg in Snatch and 100kg in Clean & Jerk in the event won by Sri Lankan Kamal Wata Asse. Wata had a lift of 230kg (95 in snatch, 135 in clean & jerk). Akramul Huq (228kg) of Bangladesh claimed silver and Ghafoor Adullah (222kg) of Pakistan the bronze.

Badminton

DHAKA: Already assured of the bronze medal in the women and men's badminton team events, Nepal suffered an identical 5-0 defeats against India and Sri Lanka respectively.

Held at the Wooden Floor Gymnasium, Nepal crashed out of the women's team event semi-finals even before playing their doubles tie. Sara Devi Tamang, Sujana Shrestha and Nangsala Devi Tamang all lost their singles matches to hand the tournament favourites India an unbeatable 3-0 lead.

Sara Devi went down 6-21, 6-21 against Sayali Digambar Gokhale while Sujana suffered even worse defeat against PC Chandrika. Nangsal Devi was the better of the three, going down 13-21, 9-21. There was no respite for the hapless Nepali team as the pair of Pooja Shrestha and Sara Devi lost the doubles match 9-21, 6-21. Nepal completed the formality when Sujana and Nangsal Devi lost the second doubles match 4-21, 4-21 to Ashwini Ponnappa and PC Thulasi. Remarkably none of the players were able to win a single set in the entire five matches.

"We were assured of the bronze after the draw favoured us," said the coach Uday Shrestha. "But we were hoping to win against Bangladesh even if we were drawn in the quarter-finals. Due to the seeding rules we were sure to have avoided a clash with India," added the coach. "As only Nepal and India had the international ranking in the five-team women's team event, we got the second seed behind India," informed Shrestha.

In the men's team event, Nepal suffered the same humiliating defeat against Sri Lanka. Bikash Shrestha lost 18-21, 9-21 to Niluka Karunaratne, Ratnajit crashed to a 6-21, 13-21 defeat and Sajan Krishna Tamrakar went down 14-21, 15-21 against Nuwan Sanadjaya in the singles matches. In the doubles section, the duo of Bishal Pradhan and Bikash Shrestha lost to Rajitha Sandipana and Sahitha Chandana 13-21, 14-21 before Kishor Rana and Sajan Krishna were beaten 13-21, 8-21.

Judo

DHAKA: Deepak Krishna Shrestha won the first bronze medal in men's 73kg category judo event here at the Savar Stadium on Sunday. Deepak beat Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi opponents and lost against India and Pakistan. India won the gold and Pakistan claimed silver, while Deepak and Habibur Rahman of Bangladesh shared the bronze. Nepal have so far won three gold, nine silver and 10 bronze medals until the 10th SA Games.

Cycling

KHULNA: Nepal finished last in the five-man Road Team Time Trial Cycling Championships on Sunday. The team of Ajay Pandit, Narayan Gopal, Mangal Krishna Lama and Raj Kumar Shrestha finished the race in 2 hours, 01 minutes, way behind the winners India (1:44). Pakistan ended up second with the time of 1:46 and hosts Bangladesh claimed the bronze in 1:47. The 80-km race started from Khulna and wenrt through Gopalgonj Road before culminating at the starting point. Nirjala Tamrakar is scheduled to compete in the 50km Mass Road Race.

Kabaddi

DHAKA: Nepali women's kabbadi team lost their first league match 10-33 against hosts Bangladesh on Sunday but they are still assured of bronze medal. With only four teams -- Nepal, India, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka -- in fray, every team is assured of returning with a medal as there will be no third-place (bronze medal) playoff. Nepal's chances of reaching the final have almost evaporated after losing to the relatively weaker team. It would be a tough task for Nepal to beat favourites India and Sri Lanka in their remaining two league matches. The men's team also went down 20-41 against Bangladesh in the morning before losing 12-47 India in the evening.

Hockey

DHAKA: As anticipated Nepal suffered yet another humiliating 19-0 loss against one of the tournament favourites Pakistan in hockey here at the Moulana Bhasani National Hockey Stadium on Sunday. Pakistan, fielding the under-21 team, began their goal feast early in the second minute through Wasif Siddique, who added five more goals in the 33rd, 51st, 52nd, 61st and 67th minute. Others on target were Abdul Qayyum (4, 12, 40, 58, 62), Sabtain Raza (39, 48), Zeeshan Ali (22, 31), Mohsin Bilal (7), Zubair Ahmed (20), Abdul Khaliq (47) and Naghman Ahmed (64). Nepal, who lost to India 21-0 against India on Saturday, will now play Sri Lanka on Tuesday before completing their campaign against Bangladesh on Wednesday. Pakistan had defeated Nepal 22-1 in their last meeting in the seventh South Asian Federation (SAF) Games in Madras in 1995.

Basketball

DHAKA: Nepal threw away a whopping 11-point lead in the final quarter to hand Maldives a narrow 69-62 win in the opening basketball match here at the Basketball Indoor Stadium on Sunday. Nepal were ahead in all three quarters scoring 23, 19 and 16 while giving away Maldives 13, 18 and 16 points. Amazingly, Nepal managed just four points in the fourth and final quarter and conceded 22. Rabindra Man Maharjan top scored for Nepal with 14 points.

Volleyball

DHAKA: Nepal opened the men's volleyball with straight-set defeat against Pakistan here at the Soharawardy Indoor Stadium. Pakistan beat Nepal 25-16, 25-15, 25-21. Only in the third set were the Nepali spikers able to pressurise the opponents in an otherwise one-sided match.

Cricket

DHAKA: Nepal lost by eight wickets against hosts Bangladesh in the U-21 Twenty20 Cricket held at the Shahid Kamruzzaman Stadium, about 400km away from the capital, on Sunday. Nepal could muster 80-7 in their allotted 20 overs after skipper Gyanendra Malla won the toss and elected to take the first strike. Binod Bhandari top-scored with 18 runs, while skipper Malla and Suvash Khakurel contributed 14 runs apiece for Nepal. Sagar Pun also chipped in 10 runs.

The hosts surpassed the total in just 9.3 overs for the loss of two wickets. Mithun Mohammad scored 41 runs and Asif Mohammad added 28. Bhuwan Karki took both the Sri Lankan wickets to fall. Nepali coach Arun Aryal blamed the poor pitch condition for his team's weak performance. He also said that his players did not perform to their potential. Nepal will meet Sri Lanka in the second league match at the same venue on Monday.