NSC awards eight athletes of four sports

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, May 29:The National Sports Council (NSC) feted eight athletes from four sports on the occasion of National Republic Day in Lalitpur on Tuesday.

The Council honoured three individuals from athletics, three from bodybuilding, one from Muay Thai and one from wushu.

Santoshi Shrestha, Rajpura Pachhai and Rammaya Budha of athletics; Lalit Dhimal, Rajani Shrestha and Sanam Mulguthi of bodybuilding; Gunaraj Ruchal of Muay Thai; and Bijay Sinjali of wushu were provided with Encouragement Award.

Athlete Santoshi had won gold in the South Asian Marathon in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Rajpura and Rammaya won a silver in personal and team categories at the 16th Asian Cross-Country Championship in Nepal.

Bodybuilder Lalit won gold in the 13th South Asian Bodybuilding Championship in Maldives, and Rajani and Sanam won gold in the 55th Asian Bodybuilding and Physique Championship.

Muay Thai’s Gunaraj won a gold in the 19th World Muay Thai Championship (semi-pro category) in Thailand; he became the first Nepali to win a medal at the semi-pro world championship in Muay Thai. Similarly, Bijay won gold in the World Combat Games in Saudi Arabia. Alongside a certificate, the award recipients were also provided with a cash prize of Rs. 650,000 in total. “Rajpura and Rammaya received Rs. 55,000 each and the others got Rs. 90,000 each,” read a statement by the council.

The athletes were awarded jointly by NSC’s vice chair Shiva Koirala, NSC member-secretary Tanka Lal Ghising, Nepal Olympic Committee general-secretary Nilendra Raj Shrestha.  Meanwhile, the NSC also formed a three-member talent identification task force under the leadership of Prachanda Sharma, head of the Department of Training and Coaching under NSC.