KATHMANDU: The Nepal Sports Journalists Forum (NSJF) announced seven nominees for the Pulsar Popular Player of the Year (PoY) Award here today.

Footballers Rakesh Shrestha and Bikash Malla, cricketer Binod Das, swimmer Karishma Karki, volleyball player Manju Gurung, athlete Pramila Rijal and chess player Manish Hamal were named as the nominees during a signing ceremony with THT Live 2722. THT Live 2722 is the official SMS voting partner of the Pulsar Player of the Year Awards. The winner will receive a cash prize of Rs 25,000 along with Samsung camera, a gift hamper from John Player, an export quality carper and many more other gift hampers.

Nominees earning greater number of SMS votes will be awarded

during a function scheduled for September 10 at the

Rastriya Nachghar.

The NSJF President Niranjan Rajbanshi and THT Live 2722 Assistant Manager Bhima Pradhan signed

the memorandum of

understanding here today. The voting opened today and will continue until 4pm on September 9.

Nepal Police Club and

national football team

striker Ju Manu Rai won

the award last year with 68682 SMS votes. In all, 149000 SMS votes were

received last year.

Karishma stole the fifth National Games (April 6-12) winning all 12 events she participated in. By winning 12 gold medals, she also broke Nayana Shakya’s record haul of nine gold medals in a single meet. Nayana has set the record during the fourth National Games a decade earlier. Apart from the stunning achievement in the National Games, Karishma also set two national records on her way to win seven gold medals during the Galaxy Open Swimming championships last year (Nepali calender).

National team skipper and NPC defender Rakesh has served the country for the last 12 years and recently led the country to the PM Invitational Cup International Tournament triumph. Bikash is a regular national team goalkeeper and the Tribhuvan Army Club custodian is the two-time PoY Awards nominees.

The Nepal Armed Police Force Club athlete Pramila won three gold, one silver and a bro-nze medal during the fifth National Games. She also set a new national record in 400m.

Heartthrob of Nepali volleyball team, Manju is also a member of the national team that won bronze medal during the 10th South Asian Games. Manish is the first Nepali to earn the Fide Master. His achievement has generated a new enthusiasm in the sports.

The Popular PoY is one of the seven categories of the Pulsar PoY Awards. The NSJF awards six other individuals — Male, Female, Youth, Coach, Lifetime Achievement and Special. The NSJF adopts three separate criteria to decide the winners of the Awards.

The five-member selection committee, headed by NSJF Secretary Mahesh Acharya, will announce

five nominees each in the Male, Female, Youth and Coach categories. The selection committee will then declare the best among

the five nominees in each category. However, there will be no competition in Lifetime Achievement and the Special Awards. The NSJF executive committee finalises the winners.

While winners of the Male and Female PoY Awards will get Rs 25,000 each, Youth, Coach and Special Award winners will receive Rs 15,000 apiece. The budget of the event is Rs 1.1 million.