Kathmandu, November 10:

German government has provided a grant of 10,000 euros to Nepal Athletics Association to build a Physiotherapy Centre at Dasharath Stadium, said NAA president and member secretary of National Sports Council, Kishor Bahadur Singh.

“The German government has provided us the assistance under its policy to develop the sport in Nepal through German Nepal Athletics Development Project and we will build the Physiotherapy Centre by the end of this year,” he said thanking the German government.

Apart from that, the German government has also decided to provide scholarships to the Nepali coaches in three cities. “We are thankful to the German government for its support. Now we can send our coaches to Colone, Mainz and Leipigic for training,” added Singh, who was one of the eight members of the Nepali delegation in the recently concluded Frankfurt Marathon.

All the three Nepali marathoners, who took part in the international event after a gap of two years, performed well finishing the long distance race in top 50 in the 10,500-athlete field.

Arjun Prasad Dhakal of Gyanendra Armed Police Force Officers’ Club bettered his personal mark by 10 minutes and came 16th in 2:26:17, while Akkal Bahadur Bohara, also of APF, and Arjun Kumar Basnet of Tribhuvan Army Club came 41st and 44th respectively. All the three athletes ran the half-marathon mark at their personal best records, 1:09.

“All the three runners maintained their speed till the half-way mark, but only Dhakal could maintain his speed to the end,” said coach Sushil Nurshing Rana. “We had taken it as the build up event for the upcoming South Asian Games, and we found that we should concentrate on the dieting of the players as all of them failed in the last phase of the marathon,” he added. “We will have to target the timings of 2:17, if we are to win medal at the SA Games,” he said.

Dhakal, the only athlete who did not have any international experience going into the Frankfurt Marathon, said that he learnt lots of things in Germany. “The opportunity was a great one for us, and we learnt various skills while running marathon in international level which will definitely help us during the SA Games,” said the 30-year ole athlete who won most of the races, including Kathmandu Marathon, in Nepal this year.