Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, July 7:

Lagankhel Dojo won the Official Karate Championship organised by Nepal Karate Federation on the occasion of King Gyanendra’s 58th birthday, here today. Umita Basnet and Binod Maharjan were declared the best players of the championship, while Dinesh Lama was adjudged the rising player. In boys 20-kg final, Sagar Sehgal defeated Dinesh Bohara, while Sunil Lama and Manish Shrestha finished joint third. Other winners and runners-up in men’s section events included Rabin Bidari and Shiva Sigdel (25kg), Anil Thapa and Hari Lama (30kg), Dilip Maharjan and Prayas Shrestha (35kg), Rupesh Shrestha and Sojan Shrestha (40kg), Mandekaji Shrestha and Rakesh Maharjan (45kg), Sunil Nakarmi and Milan Nepali (50kg), Mukunda Maharjan and Raju Acharya (55kg), Binod Maharjan and Sashi Singh Khadka (60kg), Suman Thapa and Thaneshwor Rai (65kg) and Binod Maharjan and Mandekaji Shrestha (open weight).

The women’s section winners and runners-up were Binju Ranjit and Anisa Bista (30kg), Sony Thapa and Anjana Sharma (35kg), Amrita Thapa and Pancha Laxmi Swagamikha (40kg), Subhadra Shrestha and Sandhya Tamang (45kg), Sabitri Prajapati and Roji Nagarkoti (50kg) and Amrita Shakya and Kabita Basnet (open weight section). Subhadra Shrestha also won in women’s kata defeating Samjhana Joshi, while Ram Chandra Gurung came first in men’s kata ahead of Rakesh Maharjan. Secretary at forest and soil conservation ministry Chandi Prasad Shrestha along with Nepal Karate Federation president and chief coach Thaneshwor Rai and Nepal Shito Ryu Karate Association president Kedar Babu Siwakoti gave away prizes to the winners of the two-day event.