DHAKA: Wushu players Alina Chaudhary and Jharna Gurung gave Nepal two more bronze medals during the 11th South Asian Games here today.

With the two bronze today, Nepal have tallied with only 11 bronze medals so far. Held in Sylhet, 300kms from Bangabandhu National Stadium, the players were restricted to bronze medals on Friday after losing the semi-final matches. Alina went down 0-2 against Panathoi Devi of India and Jharna lost to another Indian Sandhya Rana.

Earlier in the day, Alina and Jharna won their quarter-final matches but Sami Lama, Prem Chandra Darlami and Bir Singh Tamang crashed out of their quarter-final matches. Purushottam Rijal was drawn directly into the semi-finals of the men's 70kg category on Thursday. Purushottam is assured of at least a bronze medal.

Alina beat Toshna Hanif of Pakistan 2-1 in the women's 52kg category and Jharna saw off Malani Pathirana of Sri Lanka 2-0 in the women's 60kg category while Purushottam had a bye in the quarter-finals. Sami Lama lost 1-2 against Nazib Parvez of Pakistan in the women's 52kg category while

Prem crashed out with a 0-2 loss to Eimshick of Sri Lanka in the 60kg and Bir Singh went down with the identical 0-2 margin against Dambira of Sri Lanka in the 65kg category.

Shooting

DHAKA: Nepali shooters finished last in the five-nation men's 10m Air Pistol Team Event here on Friday. The team of Bajrauddin Ansari, Sudhan Khadka and Anil Thakuri, who scored 549, 541 and 520 points out of 600, could not even qualify for the Individual Event.

Table Tennis

DHAKA: Nepal had a mixed result in table tennis on Friday. They beat Afghanistan 3-0 but lost to Sri Lanka 1-3 in the Men's Team Event.

Against Afghanistan, Deep Saun defeated Ghulam Mustafa Bakhtiary 11-5, 11-6, 11-4 and Ajay Suwal routed Abdul Sami Jami 11-3, 11-1, 11-3. Chandan Shahi saw off Saiful Haq Jami 11-4, 11-2, 11-4.

Against Sri Lanka, Ajay lost 12-14, 7-11, 6-11 to Chalitha Ranjana Kariyawal and Shiva Sunder Gothe went down 14-12, 10-12, 3-11, 11-13 to Roshan Sirisena. Purushottam Bajracharya brought Nepal in contention with a 11-7, 11-9, 11-5 victory over Dinesh Deshappriya but Ajay lost the other match 3-11, 7-11, 5-11 to Roshan Sirisena.

In Women's Team Event, Nepal lost to India 0-3. Nabita Shrestha went down 5-11, 6-11, 10-12 to Madhurika Suhas, Muna Basukala lost 4-11, 6-11, 1-11 to Shamini Kumaresan and veteran Geeta Thapa Magar lost 11-9, 2-11, 8-11, 5-11 to Divya Chandrashekhar.

Handball

DHAKA: Nepal's hopes of upsetting hosts Bangladesh in the third-place decider ended in a crushing 11-42 defeat here on Friday. Boosted by a sizable home crowd, Bangladesh dominated the match from the beginning scoring at ease against their hapless opponents. The hosts were comfortably ahead by the half time with the scoreline reading 23-5.

Nepal added just six more goals after the break while giving away 19 goals during the same period. Amar Shrestha scored four goals for Nepal while Prakash Rawal added three, Dinesh Kumar Bista two and Bishal Nepali and Rajendra Hamal one goal apiece. The players can take comfort from the tournament as they made it to the semi-finals by recording their first win in 10 years against Afghanistan.