Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, June 28:

Nepal Sports Journalists Forum (NSJF) today announced the nominees for the Player of the Year (PoY) awards 2005. The awards — male and female players of the year and youth player of the year — will be given to the winners on the World Sports Journalists Day on July 2. The NSJF meeting decided to add one category every year and the Youth PoY was added this year, said the NSJF release. The nominees in male section include athlete Rajendra Bhandari, who won the award last year for winning two silver medals in the ninth SAF Games in Islamabad, won the gold medal in the All-Star Asian Athletics Championship held in Singapore; checker Digesh Malla, who participated in the Olympiad. Footballer Pradeep Maharjan, who scored the winning goal against Vietnam in the second-round qualifying tournament for Asia Cup in Malaysia; goalkeeper Bikash Malla, who led the team with a brilliant performance during the tournament; and Deepak Shrestha, who won the gold medal at Ojawa Cup International Karate Championship in Las Vegas and participated in 17th World Karate Tournament in Mexico and German Open Karate Championship in Germany, are also among the nominees list.

The nominees in women’s section are last year’s winner taekwondo ace Sangina Baidya, who won the SAF gold medal and competed in the Athens Olympics through qualifying; Renuka Magar, who won the silver medal at the 16th Asian Taekwondo Championship in Seoul; shuttlers Puja Shrestha and Sumina Shrestha, who won the women’s doubles silver in Asian Satellite Badminton Championship in Pakistan; athlete Kanchimaya Koju, who won the 10k race in Kathmandu Marathon; and Tara Pun, who set national record in the National Weightlifting Championship held in Birgunj. Similarly, Bikash Malla, Pradeep Maharjan, and Digesh Malla also made it to the young players’ nominees list along with cricketer Paras Khadka and swimmer Alice Shrestha. The players were selected by a five-member selection committee formed under the convenorship of NSJF secretary Narayan Upadhyay. Other members of the committee are NSJF treasurer Himesh Bajracharya, Krishna Prasad Acharya, Binod Pandey and Mahesh Acharya.