Guwahati, February 6

Lifter Devi Chaudhary won Nepal’s first medal in the 12th South Asian Games, while Bikash Thapa claimed silver medal and Saroj Yadav clinched second bronze on the second day of the regional competition.

Chaudhary lifted 54kg in snatch and 75kg in clean and jerk for a total of 129kg in the 53kg weight category to finish third at the Bhogeshwori Indoor Stadium. This is the first time women’s weightlifting is included in the SA Games and the Nepal Police Club lifter also became the first player to win SA Games medal in Nepali women’s weightlifting history.

Chaudhary was more than happy and said she was out of words to express the happiness. “I cannot express this success in words. I have gone blank as if I am in dreams,” she said. The credit of this medal goes to my family members. Their unconditional support helped me win this medal,” said Chaudhary, who suffered from diarrhoea and vomiting days before her match. “My morale was down after the bout of vomiting but I overcame that to win the medal for the country,” added the 27-year-old from Saptari district.

Thapa claimed silver medal in men’s 62kg weight category. He lifted 112kg in snatch and 130kg in clean and jerk for a total lift of 242kg. This is Thapa’s maiden medal in the regional meet. He also broke the national record in snatch breaking the previous best of 110kg held by Roshan Nakarmi. Thapa said he was proud to win medal for the country. “I am happy for me as I could win medal for Nepal,” said Thapa. “I had put in a lot of efforts for the SA Games and I was able to kiss the silver medal,” said the 27-year-old lifter from Birgunj. Thapa had finished fourth in the 11th edition of the regional games in Dhaka where Nepal remained empty-handed.

Thapa said he gave his best today. “This is my best performance so far and I am satisfied with my performance,” added the Nepal Police Club athlete. “Today I felt that I have done something for the nation.” India won gold, while Bangladesh claimed bronze in the weight category.

Saroj Yadav claimed Nepal’s second bronze and third medal of the day in men’s wrestling. Yadav finished third in the 65kg freestyle event along with WMC Perera of Pakistan. India and Pakistan came first and second respectively in the five-man weight category. Also, Jaimangal Yadav finished joint fifth in the 57kg weight category.

General Secretary of Nepal Weightlifting Association Partha Sarathi Sen Gupta said their efforts of including the women’s category paid off. “This is a great news. We wanted the event to be included in the regional meet to empower the women and Devi proved us right by winning the first medal for the country,” said Gupta, the former chief coach. India and Sri Lanka finished first and second in the weight category.

Earlier, Manisha Ranabhat lifted 107kg in the 48kg weight category to finish fourth in the four-player section. Ranabhat lifted 47kg in snatch and 60kg in clean and jerk to end her campaign on a disappointing note. India’s Charu Mirabai Saikhom won gold medal with a total of 170kg (79 +91), while Sri Lanka and Bangladesh lifter came second and third respectively. Weightlifting is the most successful sports for Nepal in the regional meet although Kamal Bahadur Adhikari remains the lone gold medallist. In previous 11 editions, Nepal had won 22 silver and 83 bronze medals.

Squash

Arhant Keshar Singh faced a humiliating defeat in the quarter-finals of the men’s singles competition. Singh lost 4-11, 10-12, 0-11 against Nasir Iqbal of Pakistan, who is ranked inside top 30 in the world and second seeded player in South Asia.

Earlier, Singh advanced to the quarter-finals with a 3-2 victory over Mohd Shopon Parvez. The Nepal third-ranked player, who trained and studied at the Wycliffe College of England for two years, took a lead with a 12-10 victory before losing two straight sets 13-15 and 9-11 to fall behind. Singh then came back strongly and won the final two sets 11-8, 11-5 to register a comprehensive victory. Singh said his hard works paid off. “I had put in a lot of efforts to prepare for the South Asian Games and I am happy to win the first match,” said Singh.

In another match, Amrit Thapa Magar lost 3-2 against Mohammed Shumon of Bangladesh. Thapa Magar won the first set 11-9 before the Bangladeshi player levelled the scores with a 11-6 victory. Thapa Magar took the lead for the second time when he won the third set 11-3 he failed to preserve the lead for the second time and Suman claimed the last two sets with identical scores of 11-5. In women’s section, Krishna Thapa lost 3-11, 4-11, 4-11 against top seeded Indian player Joshana Chinappa, while Bhavana Sunwar suffered a 4-11, 2-11, 3-11 defeat at the hands of second-ranked Pakistani player Maria Toorpaki Wazir.

Swimming

Nepali swimmers Sofia Shah and Gaurika Singh broke national records in heats before they made disappointing performance in the finals. Competing in 200m free style, Shah completed the distance in 2 minutes and 13.81 seconds to shatter Gaurika Singh’s mark of 2:14.00.

Singh also broke the 100m national record in heats with the timings of 1:10.94 before she finished sixth out of nine swimmers in 1:11.21. Nepal’s hopeful swimmer, Shirish Gurung did qualify for finals but failed to live up with expectations as he finished seventh in the 200m freestyle in 2:09.92.

In other events, Sonira Bista finished eighth in 200m breaststroke event with the timing of 3:18.11, while Shuvam Shrestha came fifth in the men’s 200m breaststroke event in 2:50.45.

Volleyball

Nepali women’s team advanced to the semi-finals with a walkover win from Afghanistan in their Group B match today. Nepal finished second behind Sri Lanka in the three-team group. Nepal had lost to Sri Lanka in their first match on Friday. The men’s team crashed out of the competition following their second straight loss. The Nepali spikers faced a 12-25, 16-25, 15-25 defeat against India in their second match. They had lost to Sri Lanka in the first match on Saturday.