Kathmandu, October 20:

Taekwondo ace Deepak Bista today left for the United States for the special training course arranged by Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) for the 15th Asian Games slated for December 1-15 in Doha.

During his 45-day training in the US, Bista will train at the Miami National Training Centre in Florida along with US national players under the guidance of Korean and American coaches. Bista will join the squad in Doha on December 2. Another gold medallist at the 10th SAG, Manita Shahi declined to go to US for family reasons and is going to Korea with other eight players selected for the Doha Asiad.

NSC member secretary Jeewan Ram Shrestha, NOC general secretary Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan and other sports officials bade farewell to Bista — who became the second Nepali athlete after legendary marathoner Baikuntha Manandhar to win three gold medals in a row. “We are sending Deepak Bista to overseas training as per our commitment after the 10th SAG, and we (NOC and NSC) will also send other gold medallists soon,” said NSC member secretary Shrestha. “I hope the training will help Deepak Bista, from whom the Nepali people has hoped a lot especially after he completed his hat-trick of gold medals in the 10th SAG, in his bid to win medal at the Asiad,” he added.

“We arranged the special training courses for the 10th SAG gold medallists in coordination with Olympic Council of Asia and International Olympic Committee to boost our players’ performance at the Asiad,” said NOC general secretary Pradhan. According to Pradhan, Bista’s training would cost NOC about $6,000.

“I would like to thank the NOC and National Sports Council (NSC) for providing me such a great opportunity to prepare myself for the Asian Games,” said Bista, who won bronze medal at the 14th Asiad in Busan in 2002. The Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) is also making efforts to arrange such training courses for the other 10th SAG gold medallists. The NOC is planning to Sulochana Sijakhwa and Kushal Shrestha (karate) and Kamal Bahadur Adhikari (weightlifting) to Iran, and Bina Khadka Lama and Raj Kumar Rasaili (wushu) to China.