Lalitpur, January 31

Shooter Sneha Rajya Laxmi Rana has been nominated as the flag bearer of Nepal during the opening ceremony of the 12th South Asian Games slated for Guwahati, India from February 5-16.

The 2012 London Olympic Games participant, Rana will carry the national flag when the 522-strong Nepali contingent takes part in March-pass at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium, Sarusajai Sports Complex.

Chef-de-Mission Keshab Kumar Bista, who is also the Member Secretary of National Sports Council, said the flag-bearer was selected on seniority basis among the participants.

Minister for Youth and Sports Satya Narayan Mandal hoped the Games would help in taking the bilateral relation to a new height.

“We have seen some tension in the relation between Nepal and India off late and we want to solve that problem through sports diplomacy,” said Mandal, who will also attend the opening ceremony in Guwahati. “We need to keep the players’ morale high and hope that our athletes will give their best in the Games,” he added.

Roshan Lepcha, Second Secretary at Embassy of India and Nodal Officer of the 12th SA Games, said India was ready to welcome the participants.

“As a neighbour, we are ready to welcome all participants in Games. I wish Nepali team all the success,” Lepcha said. “I hope Nepal will repeat the Bangabandhu Gold Cup success and do well in other sports as well. I hope Nepali athletes will return home with flying colours from India.”

Chef-de-Mission Bista said the Nepali team was in the final phase of preparation to take part in the Games. “We did our best to prepare for the Games despite having limited resources and budget crunch.

We will review our performance after returning from India but we are confident that Nepali athletes will give a positive message,” he said.

“Our performance in the Games will prove that Nepali sports is taking a huge stride towards development as indicated by the recent success of football and cricket teams,” Bista added.

Regarding the exclusion of men’s hockey team from the Games, Bista said the event was not included because of budget crunch.

“We had decided to take part in all the 23 events in the 12th SA Games but we could not include men’s hockey due to financial limitations.

Also, we were not convinced of good results from the team as hockey players were not in training for long time.”

Regarding the huge contingent, Bista said the NSC had not included a single person not related to sports. “We are sending 384 athletes and 138 officials, which is 33 per cent as per the regulations of the Games,” he said.

Nepal, hosts India and Sri Lanka are the three nations to participate in all the 23 events included in the Games. “The contingent we are sending to India is beyond our capacity.

We were not financially strong to send such a huge squad at the moment, but we did that to boost our players’ morale and also to send a positive message by accepting India’s proposal,” he added.

Asked about expectations from the Games, Bista said Nepal would do better than the previous edition. “As per the reports I have received from the national associations, we will win 12-15 gold medals in the 12th SA Games.

Nothing is certain in sports, we might be wrong in prediction. But I am confident that we beat the tally of Dhaka Games,” he added.

Nepal Olympic Committee President Jeevan Ram Shrestha said they were excited to host the next edition of the Games. “The Games started in Kathmandu in 1984 and we organised the regional sports extravaganza in Nepal in 1999.

After India, it’s our turn to host the 13th edition of the Games in Nepal and we are committed to make the event a grand success,” said Shrestha.

He informed Nepal had nominated two deputy Chef-de-Mission in Purendra Bikram Lakhe and Dharma Kumar Shrestha. “As the sports events are being organised in two different venues, we will have advantage with two officials,” he said.