Kathmandu, October 21:

A nine-member taekwondo team including 10th South Asian Games gold medallist Manita Shahi left for South Korea today for training for the 15th Asian Games to be held in Doha, Qatar from December 1-15.

Jeewan Ram Shrestha, member secretary of National Sports Council (NSC), and Rukma Shumsher Rana, president of Nepal Olympic Committee and president of Nepal Taekwondo Association, bade farewell to the team here today.

On Friday, another gold medallist Deepak Bista (Bantam weight) left for the United States of America for the special 45-day training and will join the rest of the squad on December 2 in Doha. As per NOC and NSC programme, Manita had an opportunity to go to

the US for the ‘special training programme’ but she declined for family reasons and instead opted to go to Korea.

“I opted to go to Korea due to personal reasons and the training in Korea is also good,” said Manita, who will be taking part in the Light weight category. “We don’t have quality spiring partners here, so we hope to get good partners there,” she added. Asked about her target in the Asiad, the Nepal Police athlete said that she would try to perform well and win medal for the country.

Other women players selected for the Asiad included 10th SAG silver medallists Padma Gurung (Fly) and Ayesha Shakya (Feather), Yan Kumari Chaulagain (Finn), Padma Gurung (Fly), Abina Rai (Wantem). Competing in the men’s section apart from Bista are the 10th SA Games silver medallist Kumar Manandhar (Finn), Yam Bahadur Pun (Fly), Sanjeeb Pradhan (Bantam) and Ramesh Kumar Shrestha (Light).

Nepali taekwondo players have been taking part in the Asiad since the 10th edition and have brought home a silver and 10 bronze medals.