Quarterfinal last stop for Nepali players on Asian Games Day two

By Gobinda Regmi,Hangzhou, Sept. 25: Nepal had a disappointing day on the second day of the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou as most of the Nepali players made an early exit on Sunday.

The quarterfinal was the last stop for most of the Nepali players. 

Among them, Tennis player Pradip Khadka made a winning start in men’s singles defeating Timor Leste’s Mendes Antonio 6-0. 6-0 in the first round at Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Tennis Court.

Khadka, however, had to taste a defeat in men’s doubles as he paired with Abhishek Bastola only to lose against India’s Saketh Sai Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-2, -6-3 in Round 1.

In the women’s singles, Mahika Rana and Abhilasha Bista, who enjoyed a bye in the first round, crashed out in the second round. Rana was defeated by South Korean Sohyun Park 6-0, 6-1 while Bista went down to Thailand's Mananchaya Sawangkaew in straight sets of 6-0, 6-0. 

Nepali tennis players will play men’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles on Monday.

In boxing, Sangita Sunar and Deepak Shrestha also booked the return ticket home after losing their preliminaries round. Sunar went down to Vietnam's Linh Thi 5-0 in women's 60kg. 

Shrestha suffered a 0-5 loss to Uzbekistan's Turabek Khabibullaev in men's 780kg. 

Minu Gurung also lost to Japan's Rinka Kinoshita in the women's 54kg Round of 16.

In Rugby 7, Nepal suffered a 7-55 loss to the UAE and surrendered to host China by 0-65. Nepal also lost its last match of the day against Afghanistan 41-0 in Men's Pool D.

This is the first time Nepal participated in the rugby event of Asiad.

In Shooting, Shlisha Bhandari and Sushmita Nepal crashed out from the preliminary round of women's 10m Air Rifles. Bhandari finished in 47th position and Nepal finished in 58th place. With 616.9 points, 19-year Bhandari broke the national record of 616.8 points set by Kalpana Pariyar during the Tokyo Olympics. 

Nepal’s start in Esports was also not impressive after Sameer Gurung lost to Macau's Hang Sam Tong 2-1 in the qualification match of EA Sports FC Online. Nepal also lost the Arena of Valor Asian Games Version against Thailand 2-0.

In Handball, Nepal lost to China 57-10 in the women's Preliminary Round Group B match today at Zhejiang Normal University Xiaoshan Gymnasium.

Upset in Taekwondo, Judo

Nepal has collected most of the Asian Games medals from Taekwondo. However, today, Nepal went closer to another medal but unfortunately, Prem Bahadur Limbu lost his quarterfinal match in men’s individual Poomsae.  

Philippines' Patrick King Perez defeated Limbu in the last eight. Limbu beat Pakistan's Aqdus Ullah Qadeer to enter the quarterfinal. 

Nepal's challenge in women's Poomsae also got shattered after Swastika Tamang lost to Singapore's Aqidah Binte Diyanah.

Judoka Vikas BK defeated Cambodia's Volodymyr Guchkov 10s1-0s3 in penalties to enter the round of 16 of men's 60kg at Xiaoshan Linpu Gymnasium. He, however, went down to Trukministan's Aybek Omirov 10-0 in ippon to crash out of the Games.

Debaki Maya Shrestha also got eliminated from the women's 52kg Round of 16 losing to Mongolia's Sosorbaram Lkhagvasuren 10-0 in Ippon. 

Similarly, another judoka Indra Bahadur Shrestha also lost to Hong Kong's Martin Lau 10-0 in ippon in men's 66kg Round of 32. 

The wushu was also no exception for Nepali players as Elina Chaudhary (women’s 52kg), Rohit Chunaro (men’s 56kg), Mangal Prasad Tharu (men’s 60kg) and Padam Rai (men’s 70kg) got eliminated from their first round of Sanda event. 

In swimming, Alexander Gadegaard exited from the heat round of men's 100m Freestyle at HOC Aquatic Sports Arena. He completed his race with 54.14 sec to finish at the last of the heat round. He will compete in men's 50m freestyle on Monday. 

Limbu ruled out for nine months

National women's football team member Saru Limbu has been ruled out for a maximum of nine months from injury. Midfielder Limbu sustained an injury on her knee during Nepal’s first match against Vietnam on Friday. She tore her ACL and Meniscus. 

All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) on Sunday said that she underwent successful surgery in the hospital of Hangzhou. ANFA said she will be missing the rest of the matches in the Asian Games and needs six to nine months to recover from the injury.