Kathmandu, January 25

Nepal National and International Players Association (NNIPA) is organising the NNIPA Awards on February 10 in Tokha Municipality.

The best players from 35 sports disciplines — which were included in the seventh National Games — will be felicitated in the programme along with the Gajaraj Joshi Ideal Athlete award and the NNIPA Journalism award.

“The best players of the sports disciplines included in the Awards will be nominated by their respective national associations, while we have formed a three-member committee to select other winners,” said NNIPA President Deepak Shrestha. Olympian and IPP Deepak Bista is the convenor of the selection committee, while Shrestha and vice-president Deepak Thapa are the members.

“We are organising this year’s programme at the birth place of athlete Gajaraj Joshi, the first Nepali athlete to participate in the Asian Games in 1951, and we are thankful to Tokha Municipality and Gajaraj Joshi Trust for their generous support for the ceremony,” said Shrestha.

The NNIPA has picked football, cricket, karate, taekwondo, wushu, boxing, athletics, volleyball, weightlifting, swimming, judo, archery, shooting, wrestling, lawn tennis, soft tennis, table tennis and kabaddi. Likewise, gymnastics, basketball, handball, hockey, chess, cycling, squash, triathlon, kho-kho, snooker and billiards, fencing, body building, badminton, ITF taekwondo, sepak takraw, full contact karate and golf are also in the list.

“We have got the names of all the nominees from their respective associations and we are also publishing the calendar with their photos,” said NNIPA vice-president Hari Khadka. Ward No 2 Chairman of Tokha Municipality, Deepak Joshi said his team was excited to host the award and was looking forward to welcome the sporting stars of the country. “This is one of the best programmes of the country and we are really happy to host it at our place,” he said.