Lalitpur, April 27:

A handful of self-proclaimed well wishers of the Nepali sports have successfully accomplished their mission — terminating the Nepal-German Long Term Athletics Development Project and sending back home the project director Gunter Lange.

Lange on Friday formally announced the closure of the project after the successful completion of four years as agreed initially by both the governments. The project was part of the understanding between the Nepal and Germany government.

The project was hit hard by a sheer political interests of the likes National Sports Council member secretary Jeevan Ram Shrestha, who did everything in his authority to taint the image of Lange for being close to his predecessor Kishor Bahadur Singh.

In his effort to destabilise the Nepal Athletics Association (NAA) headed by Singh, Shrestha initially controlled the association in the pretext of duel existence of the association and later dissolved the elected association. In the pretext of “Loktantra and the transition phase of the state”, member secretary Shrestha reinstated the Nepal Amateur Athletics Association, headed by Ravi Rajkarnikar, which was mostly inactive before the formation of the NAA.

Lange, who introduced scientific methods of training and skill development in Nepali athletics since the project started its work in 2003, was instead rewarded by the NSC pronouncing him as the mastermind in the Rajendra Bhandari doping case.

Double gold medallist in 5,000m and 3,000m steeple chase at the 10th South Asian Games in Colombo, Bhandari was tested positive and a committee formed to investigate the doping case blamed Lange to ‘have been methodically providing Bhandari with the performance enhancing drugs’. Coaches Sushil Narsingha Rana and Narayan Pradhan were subsequently suspended from their duty accusing them of being accomplices in the case.

German Embassy had outrightly refuted the NSC charges against Lange seeking the concrete proof. “Our government has not taken the matter (allegations against me) seriously,” said Lange after a farewell programme on Friday. German Ambassador to Nepal Franz Ring was also present during the reception.

The arrival of Lange and the project had seen drastic changes in the Nepali athletics. With the active initiation of the German expert, tournaments were organised on a regular basis throughout the country. The value of the project was reflected when national records started to tumble during the short span of time. It was the direct impact of the project that helped sharpen the quality of potential athletes like Bhandari, Nirmala Bharati, and Kanchi Maya Kuju.

“There was a strong possibility that that German government would have extended the project for the next four years had only the concerned authority initiated the talks,” said disheartened Sushil Narsingha Rana, a close friend and a caretaker of the project.

Lange said that he was hopeful that the bileteral understanding between the two goverment could possibly bring back the project.

Member secretary Shrestha, however, said that ‘they have already discussed for the extension of the project with the German authority.’ “We should not expect an outright result, it takes time,” said Shrestha.