Lalitpur, February 21

Olympic Solidarity Technical Course for Coaches of Judo began here the International Sports Complex today.

The five-day course is organised by Nepal Judo Association under the auspices of Nepal Olympic Committee.

A total of 60 judo players and coaches from across the country are participating in the course conducted by instructor Amar Meridja, who is nominated by International Judo Federation.

Meanwhile, NOC President Jeevan Ram Shrestha inaugurated the event. He said NOC would provide the NJA with long-term and result-oriented trainings for judo players. “NOC will provide intensive training to the players so that they could fetch international medals. We will also send one judo player to Japan for training and education till the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” Shrestha added that players used to get short period of time to prepare for the South Asian Games in previous editions but things would be different this time around.

“In the past, SAG used to be held in a short notice of 3-4 months and we lacked time for preparation. But for the upcoming edition, we still have a considerable amount of time for intensive training for the event slated for March 9-18 next year. We should be able to win the maximum number of medals when we host the SAG,” said Shrestha.

Similarly, NJA President Deepak Harsha Bajracharya said the association was organising the Solidarity Course after nine years. “It is a good platform to learn from an expert instructor. We need to take maximum benefit out of this course,” said Shrestha.

NJA General Secretary Dharma Kumar Shrestha said the course would be helpful in developing and expanding judo across the country.