Colombo, August 20:

Nepali shuttlers today wrapped up the South Asian Games tour with three bronze medals. Sumina Shrestha bagged a historic medal in the women’s singles becoming the first shuttler to win an individual bronze medal in the regional tournament.

On Sunday, both the men and women’s teams went down to India with the identical margin of 0-5. In women’s section, Sumina gave a tough fight to Trupti Murghnde in the first set before bowing out 16-21, 7-21.

Sara Devi Tamang put up a good fight in the second set in her 7-21, 14-21 loss to BR Meenakshi, while Samjhana Khaling faced a 4-21, 3-21 loss against Krishna D Raja. The duo of Sara Devi and Nary Thapa was beaten 13-21, 5-21 by Oli Deka and Aparna Belan, while Sumina and Samjhana went down 5-21, 11-21 to Gutta Jwala and Serugg Kurien. Sumina, the women’s team captain, expressed happiness over the team’s performance.

In men’s section, Balram Thapa lost to Chetan Anand 11-21, 8-21, Pashupati Paneru gave a tough fight Nikhil Kantekar but faced a 14-21, 17-21 loss, Anil Kumar Lakhe was beaten by Thomas Kuraim 3-21, 6-21, the duo of Indra Mahata and Ram Singh Chaudhary lost to Akshay Diwalkar and Jishnu Sangal 12-21, 13-21, and Balram and Pashupati went down to Sanave Thomas and V Diju 7-21, 11-21.

Despite the 0-5 loss, Pashupati Paneru was happy that he could give a good fight against Indian No 2 Kantekar.

Wushu

COLOMBO: Bhushan Bajracharya of Nepal registered a knock-out win over India’s Raj Bir Singh to enter the semi-final in men’s 75-kg San Shau confirming at least a bronze medal.

Nepal ‘s performance in the event was against the expectation. Bina Khadka is on top with 8.93 points ahead of Sri Lankan and Indian players in women’s Thaulo.

In women’s Chang Quan, Bhuvan Shrestha earned 8.65 points and is on top, while Pancha Man Maharjan, regarded as the potential gold medallist, got 8.88 points for a third position in men’s Chan Quan. Sri Lanka and India are ahead of Pancha Man. All the medals in wushu will be decided on Tuesday.

Table Tennis

COLOMBO : The Nepali men’s team entered the semi-finals in table tennis with a 3-2 win over Bangladesh confirming at least a bronze medal. Rajendra Kapali and Sushil Poudel registered one win and one loss each, while Gopal Maharjan gave Nepal the third win.

Kabaddi

COLOMBO: Both the men and women’s Kabaddi teams faced second straight defeats today. Despite the loss, Nepal still can win bronze medals especially women’s team.

Nepali women went down fighting to Bangladesh 24-28. The two teams will meet again in third-place . India and hosts Sri Lanka made it to the final from the four-team event.

“All the players are inexperienced, but we still put up a good fight,” said coach Shanti

Singh. This is the first time women’s kabaddi is included in the regional tournament

and four teams are taking part in the event. In the first match, the hosts Sri Lanka defeated Nepal 41-15.

Gurung advances to boxing semi-finals

Himalayan News Service

Colombo, August 20:

Anil Gurung entered the 69kg semi-finals in the boxing tournament beating Bhutanese Kincho Wangdi 25-16. Gurung started with a bang taking a 7-1 lead in the first round. Gurung extended the lead to 12-3 in the second round, and made it 21-9 by the end of the third round. Gurung was forced to play in the back foot in the last round, but the bout went in favour of Gurung.

Earlier, Purna Bahadur Lama (57kg), Mahesh Rijal (54kg), Sushil Ghimire (64kg) and Bishnu Prasad Rijal (81kg) were drawn directly into the semi-finals, which means they are confirmed of at least a bronze medal each. Also, Anil Dahal was beaten by Hari Krishna Belwal in the 51kg section, and Allah Baksh of Pakistan knocked out Bikash Pariyar of Nepal in the second round of the 75kg category. Pariyar was trailing 11-5 when he got a blow. The semi-finals are scheduled for Monday.