Dahal and Singh receive NOC Athlete of the Year 2022 awards

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, June 24 : Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) on Thursday honoured shuttler Prince Dahal and swimmer Gaurika Singh with the Best Athlete 2022 award.  

NOC feted Dahal and Singh with the best male and best female player awards respectively.

NOC organised the award function for the first time on the occasion of the International Olympic Day. 

June 23 is a day when athletes and people worldwide congregate and organize various sports events to mark the Olympic Day. 

Along with the award ceremony, NOC also organized various programmes to mark the day today. 

Sports for All Commission of NOC also organized 2486 sports programmes for 19 days to celebrate the International Olympic Day.  

Shuttler Dahal received the award for his feat at the national and international badminton tournaments. He won the bronze medal in the men’s singles and men’s double event at the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) held in Kathmandu and Pokhara in 2019. Dahal also became the first Nepali badminton player to be ranked No. 1 in the Junior World Badminton Ranking.

Swimmer Singh, who bagged four gold medals at the 13th SAG, was named the NOC Best female player of the year 2022 for her contribution to the national and international swimming tournaments. She was the youngest athlete during the Rio Olympics.

Similarly, Golf Coach Deepak Magar and Taekwondo Coach Sangina Baidhya were named the Best Coach of 2022 in the male and female categories respectively.

NOC also honoured the Nepal Taekwondo Association with the award for the NOC Best Association of the Year.  

Likewise, NOC honoured various sports personalities with a Presidential Recognition Award. 

Late Sharad Chandra Shah and Late Rukma Shumser Rana were awarded posthumously.  

Former Sports Minister Purushottam Paudel, Former NOC President Dhurba Bahadur Pradhan, Senior Sports Journalist Shyam Chitrakar, NOC Advisor Lok Bhakta Rana, Olympian and first international medallist Jeet Bahadur KC, Olympian and SAG Marathon record holder Baikuntha Manandhar, first taekwondo black belt holder Dr Sudha Sen Malla and Footballer Sabitra Bhandari were other sports personalities to get NOC Presidential 

Recognition. 

Meantime, NOC also honoured four sports journalists with NOC Best Journalist Award 2022 in different categories.  

NOC felicitated Raju Ghising from Kantipur National Daily with a Best Journalist in Print Media. Senior Sports Journalist Niranjan Rajbanshi from BBC was honoured with a NOC Best Multi-Media Award.

Similarly, former photojournalist of Gorkhapatra National Daily Rajendra Chitrakar received the NOC Best Photo Journalist and Sabina Karki of Kantipur Television claimed the NOC Best Visual Media Award for their contribution to the sports 

journalism. 

NOC formed an 11-member NOC Award Committee coordinated by Gopal Sundarlal Kachhapati to nominate the name of the award winners.