KATHMANDU: Tilak Ram Mahato of Western Region and Pramila Rijal of Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) won the 100m sprint gold medals during the National Open Selection Tournament organised by Nepal Amateur Athletics Association (NAAA) today.

Mahato clocked 10.75 seconds to claim the gold medal in men’s event while Baliram Chaudhary of Birgunj took silver and Tim Ram Chaudhary of Nepali Army the bronze.

Rijal claimed the women’s 100m in 12.60, ahead of Keshari Chaudhary of Nepal Police and Ramita Chaudhary of Mid Western Region.

Armyman Deep Bahadur Dhami clinched the 10,000m gold while Bhumi Raj Rai of Nepal Police and Letter Singh Khatri of Nepali Army claimed silver and bronze respectively. Bindra Shrestha of APF won the women’s 10,000m gold while Sakuntala Budhathoki of Salyan and Chandra Kala Chaudhary of Maoist Cantonment finished second and third.

In the 1500m race dominated by the Armymen, Hari Rimal bagged the gold while Letter Singh Khatri and Raj Kumar Bista clinched silver and bronze. Surya Maya Rai and Gita Khatri of APF picked up the women’s 1500m gold and silver respectively.

In the men’s shot-put, Ujir Singh Bista of Nepal Police, Bam Bahadur Gurung of Nepali Army and Tekendra Pathak of Far Western rounded up the top three finishes. Dhirendra Jung Shah of Nepal Army claimed the men’s javelin throw and Narendra Jung Shah and Aakash Chaudhary of Nepal Army picked up silver and bronze respectively. Narayan Urav of Nepal Police claimed the men’s triple jump with Dilli Khatri of Army and Yama Sajan Sunuwar of Mid West winning silver and bronze respectively.

The tournament serves as the preliminary stage of selection for the 11th South Asian Games to be held in Dhaka from January 29 to February 9 next year. The best athletes in the tournament will also get opportunity to represent Nepal in the third Asian Indoor Games and 18th Asian Athletics Championships, said the NAAA general secretary Ravi Raj Rajkarnikar.

“We have set a certain standard for selection and athletes meeting those standard will be picked up for the Asian Athletics and Indoor Games,” said Rajkarnikar. The Indoor Games is slated for October 31 to November 2 in Vietnam and the Asian Athletics Championships scheduled for November 10-14 in Guangzhou.