Nepal bag two gold medals at Asian Cross Country

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Mar. 8: Nepal clinched two gold medals at the 16th Asian Cross Country race held at Gokarna Resort in Kathmandu on Tuesday. 

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ inaugurated the event organised in Nepal after two decades.

Nepal bagged a gold medal in the senior men’s individual and team event. Nepal also pocketed two silver medals each in women’s senior and junior races. In the junior men’s team event, Nepal satisfied with a bronze medal. 

Deepak Adhikari snatched a gold medal for the home in the senior men’s 10 KM race. Mukes Bahadur Pal kissed the bronze medal for Nepal. Japan’s Daichi Kamino trailed at the second position to kiss the silver medal.  Deepak, Mukesh teamed with Dipak Suhan to grab the gold medal in the men’s team event. They clocked 1 hour 43:19 minute to finish the race in front. Iran and India trailed in second and third position respectively. 

Similarly, Rajpura Pachhai won the silver medal for Nepal in the senior women’s 10km race. She timed 41:31 minutes to finish in second position. Japan’s Yuwa Sarumida and India’s Sonika took gold and bronze medal respectively. 

Pachhai, Pushpa Bhandari and Brinda Dhanke Shrestha teamed up to take a silver medal in the team event of the women’s 10 Km race. India won the gold medal while Thailand took the bronze medal. 

In the men’s Junior (U20) team, Nepal’s Sher Bahadur Adhikari, Sanjay Damai and Bikesh Ghimire finished the 8 Km race in 1 hour and 31:50 minutes to satisfy with the bronze medal. India and Iran finished first and second at the podium. 

In the individual race, Iran bagged gold and bronze medal. India won the silver medal.

Rammaya Budha settled for the silver medal in the women’s individual junior 6km race after losing to Shruti Shreedhar Redakar in the photo finish. Both clocked 24:15 minutes to complete the race. India also won the junior women’s team event.