NAAA pick 22 athletes

KATHMANDU: After the two-day final-round selection in Kathmandu, the Nepal Amateur Athletics Association (NAAA) on Tuesday selected 22 athletes — 15 in men’s and seven in women’s events — for the 11th South Asian Games.

Armymen Arjun Basnet and Rajendra Bhandari were already confirmed to participate in marathon after their one-two finish at the third Real Kathmandu Marathon. Another Armyman Hari Kumar Rimal earned the 1,500m berth. Tilak Ram Mahato of Nawalparasi was selected for the men’s 100m and 200m races while Siddhanta Adhikari of Pokhara will compete in 400m.

Bal Krishna Chaudhary of APF and Surya Bahadur Khatri of Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) will take part in men’s high jump. The TAC have also their man, Kalyan Baniya, selected for the 5,000m race. Dhirendra Chaudhary, Vidhyadhar Chaudhary and Dhruba Narayan Urao of NPC were picked for 110m hurdles, long jump and triple jump respectively. Bali Ram Chaudhary of Chitwan, Dashi Ram Chaudhary of TAC and Suman Bhattarai of APF were selected for the relay event. They will be joined by one of the aforementioned short distance runners.

In the women’s section, NPC’s Keshari Chaudhary was the unanimous candidate to have her name in high jump. The athlete set a new record of 1.56m in the final round of selection on Monday. Sita Hajam of PLA has also been selected for the event.

Ramita Chaudhary of Mid-western region will compete in 100m and long jump. Pramila Rijal of APF lost her regular 400m berth to Sabitri Nepali of NPC but she had her name in 200m race. Sunita Tamang of APF was named in the women’s relay team which will be joined by three of the aforementioned athletes.