POKHARA, OCTOBER 15
Tribhuvan Army Club swimmers Nasir Yahya Hussain, Alexender Gadegard Shah and Duana Lama and Nepal APF Club's Tenzing Namdol Ryan Gurung set new national records on the opening day of swimming tournament under the Ninth National Games in Pokhara today.
Hussain improved his own mark in 1,500m freestyle event when he completed the distance in 16 minutes and 50.21 seconds on his way to becoming the first swimmer to win gold medal in the Games. He held the national record of 17:49.95 set during the 13th South Asian Games in Kathmandu in 2019. NR- NA's Ashish Sapkota came second in 16:57.95, while Nepal Police Club's Sanil Kumar Thapa Magar was third in 18:14.17.
Another TAC swimmer Shah also improved his record in 100m freestyle. He completed the distance in 51.87 seconds to better his previous mark of 52.30 seconds set during the 13th SA Games. Fellow TAC teammate Hussain came second in 53.52 seconds, while Shankar Bahadur Raghubanshi finished third in 54.64 seconds.
In women's section, NR- NA's Ashley Sapkota Dangol won gold in one minute and 1.42 seconds, finishing ahead of TAC's Anushiya Tandukar and NPC's Megan Gurung.
Also, Duana Lama set the new national record twice in 200m Individual Medley. She won gold medal with the timing of two minutes and 30.67 seconds, improving her heats timing of 2:31.46. She broke Gaurika Singh's record of 2:32 set during eighth National Games in Nepalgunj.
Royal Prajapati of APF and Bagmati's Rosha Neupane won silver and bronze respectively.
Likewise, APF's Tenzing Namdol Ryan Gurung also won 200m backstroke gold with record timing of two minutes and 16.23 seconds.
He broke the previous mark of 2:16.50 set by Nathan Dorjee Sherpa in the Eighth National Games. Prarambha Bhandari of Province-I and APF's Souren Bahadur Singh came second and third respectively.
In other events, Tenzing Namdol Ryan Gurung of APF won men's 50m butterfly event gold medal with the timing of 27.56 seconds, finishing ahead of his teammate Ajal Kaji Tamrakar and TAC's Anubhav Subba.
NRNA's Ashley Sapkota Dangol bagged her second gold medal in women's 50m butterfly event with the timing of 30 seconds. TAC's Duana Lama and NPC's Megan Gurung came second and third respectively.
A version of this article appears in the print on October 16, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
