KATHMANDU: Nepal’s challenge at the first Youth Asian Games ended today with an

early exit of swimmer Karishma Karki today.

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games participant, Karishma crashed out of the

girls’ 50m freestyle. She clocked 33.66 seconds, well behind her personal mark of 31.81 set during the fifth National Games held in Kathmandu from April 6-12. She finished 17th , just one position short of qualifying for the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, Karishma’s father and national swimming coach Ishwor Karki said he was not surprised with the outcome. “It’s useless to expect good results from the Nepali swimmers in international events,” said Karki. He said the lack of infrastructure back home, where swimmers care only train for a maximum of six months, was the hindrance for the swimmers. “If they get to train throughout the year, they can achieve good results.”

Nepali table tennis players also failed to make any impression. Except for Sonu Kumar Gupta, who put up some fight in the boys’ singles match before going down 3-2 against Sri Lankan Udanjaya Kulappua, others performed frustrating.

Gupta lost the first two sets 11-6, 11-8 and won the next two sets 11-9, 11-7 to level the match. But, Gupta lost the final set 7-11. In another match, Pradip Rokka lost to Japan’s Niwa Koki.

In the women’s singles matches, Elina Maharjan lost to Chin Siyao Chun of Chinese Taipei, while Resina Deshar lost to Hong Kong’s No 1 Wan Li Ting in straight sets.