KATHMANDU: The Nepal Taekwondo Association (NTA) handed over the International referee certificates to the 18 Nepali referees here today.

A total of 20 Nepali referees had appeared the exams for the international referees at the 56th International Referee Seminar organised by Indian Taekwondo Association under the auspices of World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) in Bangalore from September 3-6 last year.

Member Secretary of the National Sports Council Hari Babu Chaudhary distributed the certificates sent by the WTF to the 18 referees including two women. The referees will now be able to officiate in any level of tournaments organised by the WTF. With the success of these 18 referees, Nepal now have 21 international referees. Previously, Deep Raj Gurung, Deepak Bista and Madhuban Lal Singh were the only three international referees in Nepal.

Former taekwondo ace Sangina Baidhya, the first Nepali player to qualify for the Olympics, and Bimala Bhandari were the two women referees to receive the certificates.

Among the men referees getting certificates were Norbu Lama, Tika Prasad Limbu, Rajesh Prajapati, Bhimlal BK, Gobinda Prasad Sharma, Harihar Pandey, Kishor Kumar Thapa, Min Neupane, Nabin Kumar Shrestha, Nirmani KC, Fadindra Khadka, Ishwor Man Bajracharya, Puspa Raj Joshi, Dinesh Shrestha and Badri Prasad Ghimire. Bijay Neupane and Bhupendra Pun couldn’t pass the exams.

Meanwhile, the Member of the NTA and Managing Director of Roots Fashion Sanjeev Tuladhar gave away a pair of Adidas shoes each to the 10 taekwondo players and a coach selected for the upcoming 11th South Asian Games.

Also, NTA General Secretary Deep Raj Gurung announced cash awards for the SA Games medal winning taekwondo players promised by Krishna Raj Gurung of Dhumbarahi, who was not present at the programme. As per the announcement, each gold, silver and bronze medal-winners would receive Rs 35,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 15,000 respectively.

NSC Members Rabindra Yadav and Samim Miya Ansari, NTA President Prakash Shumsher Rana and NIS chief Partha Sarathi Sen Gupta among others were also present on the occasion.