Kathmandu, March 7:

Narayani Zone won the taekwondo team championship at the second National Republican Sports Festival, which has been organised by Republican Sports Federation of Nepal, here today.

Narayani won three golds, two silvers and a bronze medal, while Bagmati finished second with two golds and a bronze medal. Gandaki won a gold and three bronze medals for the third spot.

On Friday, Kiran Pariyar of Gandaki (bantamweight) and Rohit Tamang of Bagmati (featherweight) won gold medals in men’s section. Pariyar and Srijana Khadka, both from Gandaki, were declared the best players in taekwondo.

In athletics, Umesh Shrestha of Bagmati won the men’s 10,000-metre race in 34 minutes and 44 seconds, ahead of Chok Bahadur Gurung of Gandaki and Ram Prasad Chaudhary of Narayani.

Jeet Kumari Chaudhary won women’s long jump gold with a distance of 4.39 metres, while Rabin Chaudhary of Bheri clinched the gold in men’s section with a jump of 6.14 metres.

Rekha Chaudhary of Seti came first in women’s 400m in one minute and six seconds, whereas Dipendra Lal Shrestha won the men’s section gold in 54.3 seconds.

In karate, Surendra Kathayat of Seti won the 75-kg section gold defeating Arun Rai of Koshi in the final, while Ram Pradhan of Mechi and Sangita Dangol of Dhaulagiri claimed Open weight category gold medals.

Gandaki Zone entered the final of both men’s and women’s volleyball. In women’s semi-finals, Gandaki beat Bagmati 25-12, 25-10, 25-15 and Sagarmatha defeated Lumbini 19-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-18. Gandaki came from behind to beat Janakpur 23-25, 25-17, 25-19, 25-17 and Mechi outplayed Bagmati 25-22, 25-19, 25-14 in men’s semi-finals.

In football, Janakpur and Gandaki made it to the final. Janakpur beat Bagmati 1-0 on a solitary goal from Sunil Subedi in the 78th minute, and Gandaki thrashed Jana Mukti Sena 6-0 in the semi-finals held at the Dasharath Stadium.

Naresh KC struck a hat-trick, while Surendra Shrestha and Rajendra Tamang netted one goal each for Gandaki and Sanjaya of Jana Mukti Sena scored an own goal. The finals are slated for Saturday.