KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 24
Nepal Telecom won the title of the Kumari Bank Kathmandu Team Championship here at the National Sports Council covered hall today.
Nepal Telecom defeated Silk Group 3-2 in the final of the corporate badminton tournament. Nepal No 1 Tamang defeated Silk Group's Bikash Shrestha 21-18, 21-13 in the men's singles match to put Nepal Telecom ahead, while Anumaya Rai levelled the scores for Silk Group with a 21-14, 21-15 victory over Sima Rajbanshi in the women's singles game.
Nepal Telecom regained the lead after Surendra Singh Karki and Hari Krishnan Sharma defeated Silk Group duo Subash Adhikari and Ramesh Shrestha 21-12, 21-5 in the corporate doubles event. Silk Group levelled the scores for the second time in the match with a walkover win from Sima Rajbanshi and JT Guddi in the women's doubles match. The Nepal Telecom duo was forced to quit the match against Anumaya Rai and Tashi Sherpa after Rajbanshi aggravated knee injury in the first set.
In the fifth and final event, Ratnajit Tamang and Hari Krishnan Sharma recorded a 21-17, 22-20 victory over Silk Group's Bikash Shrestha and Ramesh Sherpa in the men's doubles match to seal the victory for Nepal Telecom.
Champions Nepal Telecom received the running shield along with medals and certificates, while national players Ratnajit Tamang and Sima Rajbanshi earned Rs 75,000 each. The orgaisers dedicated the 15kg silver trophy worth Rs 800,000 to badminton player Triratna Manandhar.
The national players in the runners-up team Silk Group, Bikash Shrestha and Anumaya Rai received Rs 60,000 each, while four shuttlers - Nepal Electricity Authority's Bishnu Katuwal, and Rashila Maharjan, and Nepal Oil Corporation's Deepak Bohora and Shova Gauchan - from joint third-place teams got Rs 55,000 apiece. The national team players from finalists, Ratnajit Tamang, Bikash Shrestha, Sima Rajbanshi and Anumaya Rai also received 60GB data pack from Nepal Telecom.
A total of eight teams took part in the four-day tournament organised by Kathmandu Badminton Academy under the auspices of Nepal Badminton Association. Top eight shuttlers in both men's and women's sections, based on their national team ranking, were allotted to the participating teams through a lottery and they received Rs 20,000 each as registration amount along with match fee of Rs 2,500 per game. Legend Triratna Manandhar, Nepal Olympic Committee General Secretary Nilendra Raj Shrestha, NBA President Ramji Bahadur Shrestha, KBA President Rita Bista, Nepal National and International Players Association President Deepak Shrestha among others handed over the prizes to the winners.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 25, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
