Nepal won their first medal of the 11th South Asian Games

Nepal won their first medal of the 11th South Asian Games on third day in the women's badminton held at the wooden floor gymnasium on Sunday.

The Nepali eves bagged the bronze in the team event with ease after they had earned a bye into the semi-finals earlier on Friday when the tie-sheet was drawn.

Sara Devi Tamang, the first of the three women in the team event, was no match for India's Sayali Degamber going down 21-6, 21-6. Sujana Shrestha also could not fare any better suffering a 21-4, 21-4 loss at the hands of PC Thulasi of India. Nangsal Devi Tamang, however, made her India opponent Shruti Kurieu struggle for the 21-13 win in the first set, but the second set saw the Indian register a one-sided 21-9 win.

The women's doubles, the second part of the team event, was no better for Nepal. The duo of Puja Shrestha and Sara Devi Tamang could not give any competition to their India opponent Shruti Kurien/ Aparna Balan going down 21-9, 21-6. The pairing of Sujana Shrestha and Nangsal Devi Tamang went down 21-4, 21-8 against Ashwini Ponnappa/Thulasi Puttenpurayil.

Nepal had earned a bye into the semi-finals through their better world ranking as compared to other participants besides India. Sujana Shrestha and Sara Devi Tamang ranked above other participants except those from India. Nepal coach Udaya Shrestha said Nepal could have given a better competition had the opponents come from any other country except India. “Indian players are world class. We simply cannot compete against them.”

The men's badminton team also suffered the same fate. In the single's event, Bikash Shrestha lost 18-21, 9-21 to Niluka Karunaratne, Ratnajit crashed to a 6-21, 13-21 defeat and Sajan Krishna Tamrakar went down 14-21, 15-21 against Nuwan Sanadjaya — all from Sri Lanka.

Judo gives third bronze

The Nepali judo team has added another bronze for the country in the 11th South Asian Games to take Nepal's medal tally to three. Deepak Krishna Shrestha confirmed the bronze for Nepal after he was defeated in the 73 kg category for semi-finals berth. Shrestha had advanced defeating opponents from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, but went down against India and Pakistan, the eventual gold and silver medalist of the category.