KATHMANDU: Nepal Judo Association (NJA) today selected four players for the Asian Youth and Junior Judo Championships slated for Bangkok from April 30 to May 2.

Pawan Kumar Raut of Parsa and Fupulama Khatri of Multipurpose Martial Arts Centre (MMAC), Diwakar Basnet of Lalitpur and Sushmita Lawat of Nuwakot were selected for the Asian Championships. Pawan will compete in the men’s below 50kg category and Fupulama will fight in women’s below 63kg section. Likewise, Diwakar was selected for the men’s below 55kg section and Sushmita for the women’s below 45kg category.

Pawan beat Rohan Thapa of Nuwakot

while Fupulamu did not have to undergo the rigours of qualifying due to the absence of her sparring partner.

Diwakar overcame Sunil Nagarkoti and Sushmita saw off Archana Shrestha of Kathmandu in the qualifiers to earn the tickets to Bangkok.

“The selected judokas will be kept under closed camp training from Thursday,” said NJA President Deepak Harsha Bajracharya. Meanwhile, Japan

International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Nepal presented 90

pair of gees to the NJA after the completion of the qualifier.

In all 27 judokas from Parsa, Kailali, Banke, Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Kathmandu, Lalitpur, New Horizon and MMAC took part in the qualifier. The Nepali judokas will leave for Bangkok on April 29.