Mardeka Cup: Abscess Restricts Bikash, Ritesh To Take Over

The armyman Bikash Malla, suddenly developing an abscess, have had to take rest during Nepal's first encounter today against hosts Malaysia in the Mardeka Cup and now leaves room for the second choice, NPC goalie Ritesh Thapa in the starting line-up.

Nepal have not any injury and aliment besides the abrupt case of Bikash, team officials tells socceragenepal.com.np. The first eleven have been decided after the breakfast brief.Biraj Maharjan, Chun Bahadur Thapa, Sagar Thapa and Anjan KC will take up the defence while in the midfield will be Bhola Silwal, Raju Tamang, Sandeep Rai and Bijaya Gurung.

Captain Nirajan Rayamajhi will sit in the bench as Anil Gurung and Jumanu Rai are entrused with the forward line.
                                            
Nepal will play the hosts at MBPJ Stadium at 6:30 NST.

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Nirajan fires for NRT

ITAHARI, Sept 12 - New Road Team (NRT) edged Rashtriya Jagriti Club of Itahari on Friday in its third match of a nationwide tour managed by nepa~laya.

Veteran striker Nirajan Rayamajhi scored two goals and Anil Gurung netted one for NRT while Surendra Tamang and Ramji Khatri scored a goal each for the local team.

NRT will now travel to Kawasoti to play against Young Star Club on September 15.

Meanwhile, NRT also conducted a football clinic for young aspiring players, and a referee workshop on Thursday.

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Bista retains NSJF LG PoY Award

Basnet finishes 45th in marathon

Beijing, Aug 24 - Nepal's Olympic journey ended on a disappointing note after Arjun Kumar Basnet failed to better his personal timing in the men's marathon on the last of the 29th Beijing Olympics on Sunday.

Out of the total eight players that represented Nepal in the games, only Kamal Bahadur Adhikari returned home with a success story to tell.

In the men's marathon that flagged off at the Tiananmen Square this morning, Basnet clocked 2 hrs 23 mins 9 secs to complete the 41.395km marathon, finishing 45th among 76 participants.

Kenya's Samuel Kamau bagged the gold in the event setting a new Olympic record of 2 hrs 6 mins and 32 secs. Bansnet finished the race 16 minutes 37 secs behind Kamau.

The participants moved forward as the Beijing sky opened up raising the mercury level. Arjun made a good start in the race covering half of the distance in 1 hr 8 mins 40 secs. Going by his performance in the initial stages, he was on way to complete the race in the desired timing of 2 hrs 20 mins or less. Until 35 kms of the race, Arjun was inside his target.

However, his performance took a dip when he neared the 40-km mark and even failed to maintain his South Asian Games timing of 2 hrs 21 mins and 25 secs, which had fetched him a silver medal.

However, Basnet was no at all disappointed with his showing. "There was room for improvement. 2 hrs 23 mins is not a bad timing. I had done okay till 35 kms but failed to maintain the momentum after that," said Basnet.

Arjun had booked a ticket to Beijing displaying a good performance in the qualifying stages and his showing today was not bad either. He seemed happy finishing ahead of good athletes of countries like South Korea, Japan, Spain and Chile.

"Even those players who usually complete the race in 2 hrs 18 mins had a disappointing day today managing just 2 hrs 27 mins. Judging their performance, I did relatively well," explained Arjun.

Coach Pushpa Raj Ojha seconded Arjun.

"His performance was satisfying. He has maintained his standard and this will help him perform better in the regional level and Asian level," commended Ojha.

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Chandrakala failed to break national record

Beijing, Aug 16 - Nepal's poor showing continued on the eighth day of the 29th Beijing Olympics after Chandra Kala Thapa failed to improve her personal best timing in 100m heats on Saturday.

Thapa ran the 100m heats despite suffering from a sprained knee and a muscle injury and cited the injuries as  the main reason for her poor showing today. What disappointed her the most was the fact that she was unable to maintain her practice timing.

"I did not I think I could even run the race because my injury was at its worst troubling me even just before the race. I managed to get on the track after a Russian athlete massaged my knee," explained Thapa.

In the event held at the Bird's Nest, Thapa running in heat number 10 finished last behind eight other runners clocking 13.15 secs and 72nd among the total of 87 runners. Kerror Stewart of Jamaica won the heat number 10 clocking 11.28 secs.

Marathon coach Pushpa Raj Ojha said he noticed Thapa's suffering when she was on the track getting ready for the race. "I saw her having difficulty when she stepped on the track. I did not know beforehand and found out only after the race was completed," said Pushpa Raj.

Thapa had hoped to lower her personal timing as she arrived at the venue from the Games Village. Let alone better he personal timing, she was unable to maintain even her practice timing.

Coach Ojha does not agree that Chandra Kala had a disastrous performance today. "Muscle injury is a regular problem among sprinters and today it was her turn to suffer. We had hoped to see a national record from her if she had not gone through this," said Ojha.

With Thapa's exit from the Olympics, five Nepali athletes have crashed out from the first round itself, leaving taekwondo ace Deepak Bista and marathon runner Arjun Basnet in the event. Deepak's event is scheduled for August 22 while Arjun's is on August 24.

The whole nation has its eyes set on Deepak to bring something back home and Deepak says he is fully aware of the expectations of the entire country. "I know all my countrymen have their faiths rested on me. My only aim during my event will be to deliver those hopes," said Deepak.

After his arrival to Beijing, Deepak is once again suffering from his recurrent knee injury. But he is doing all he can to get rid of the problem. " The injury is getting better. I have gained a lot of confidence after I arrived here and don't want to ruin my first Olympics due to the injury," said Deepak. 

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Karishma finishes second in the heat

Shah unable to break national record

Nepali swimmer Prasiddha Jung Shah improved his personal best record in the 50 metre freestyle during the heats of the Beijing Olympic Games on Thursday.
Shah lowered his mark by 35 seconds as he finished the course in 27.59 seconds, only better than swimmers from Uganda (27.72) and Sudan (30.12) in the heat. Shah's previous best record was 27.94 seconds set during the 2007 World Championships in Australia. He could not even break the national record of 26.39 seconds set by Chitra Bahadur Gurung.
With the result, Shah became the fourth Nepali palyers to bow out of the Games. Shooter Phool Maya Kyapchhaki, weightlifter Kamal Bahadur Adhikari and judo player Devu Thapa have already been eliminated from the Olympics.
Of the two swimmers, Karishma Karki is scheduled to compete in the women's 50 metre freestyle heats on Friday. Karki received the wild card following her personal best record of 34.57 seconds set at the 2007 World Championship in Australia. Runa Pradhan holds the national record in the event at 31.28 seconds.
Apart from Karki, three more Nepali players are scheduled to participate at the Games. Deepak Bista - the only second Nepali sportsperson to qualify for the Olympics after Sangina Baidhya (Athens) - will compete in the below-80kg category after the August 18 draw while sprinter Chandra Kala Thapa is slated to take part in the 100m event on Saturday. Arjun Kumar Basnet will be the last to compete in Beijing when the men's marathon gets underway on August 24.

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Kamal betters national record

Beijing, Aug 11 - Kamal Adhikari put up a satisfying performance in weightlifting in Beijing Olympics bettering his own national record of 266 kgs by two kgs in men's 69kg category on Monday.

In the event held in Bua Gymnasium, Adhikari lifted a total of 268 kgs including 114 kgs in snatch and, 154 kgs in clean and jerk. Though Adhikari broke three national records, he did not qualify for the next round finishing sixth among eight participants in Group C.

Kamal had set the national record of 266 kgs in the 10th SA Games in Colombo. For the new national record, Adhikari, gold medalist in 69 kg category in Colombo, lifted a kilogram more in both snatch and, clean and jerk.

Suffering from a back injury and insufficient practice, Adhikari expressed his happiness on achieving the feat despite failing to make it to the next round. "I could have improved my performance if I had a little more practice and fitter. Anyway, I have given some inspiration to the other Nepali players," said Adhikari.

He credited his good showing in the Olympics to his coach, Parthasarathi Sen Gupta, saying,"Mithu Guru groomed me in a relatively short period and all the credit goes to him."

Adhikari who had injured his back while competing in the Asian Weightlifting Championship held in Japan earlier this year, said, he did not make his third attempt in snatch after knowing he had broken the national record.

Likewise, he cancelled his third attempt in clean and jerk citing the same reason. "Since I had broken the national record in the second attempt itself and moreover, my aim was to break the national record I opted to give up the third attempt," explained Adhikari.

Coach Mithu Guru added that he had advised Adhikari not to go for the third attempt in both the category due to his ailing back problem.

Mithu Guru is as happy as Kamal as he braved his ailing back to put up a good showing in the world stage.  "Kamal's Olympic journey has been successful and praise worthy due to the fact that he did it not caring his injury," praised Mithu Guru.

Likewise, Nepal Olympic President, Dhurba Bahadur Pradhan praised Kamal for his wonderful showing in the Olympics.

Debu aims for medal

Debu Thapa, Nepal's female judo participant in the Beijing Olympics, aims to win a medal when she competes in women's judo 62kg category on Tuesday.

Thapa advanced into the second round earning a bye in the first round and will move into the quarterfinals if she wins her upcoming game.

This is the first time in 14 years of her sporting career that she has earned a bye in any event she has participated in and she is taking this omen as a lucky gesture, which could take her further ahead in the championship.

"I have been quite lucky and I have trained hard for the event. I hope to win something for the nation," said Thapa.

Debu is currently under coach Biren Ranjitkar. She said that the time has come for her to pay back to all the coaches who had trained her hard for this day.

The climate at Beijing has been favorable for Debu, instilling some confidence in her for the final day. "The accommodations for coaches and players have been properly managed. I am having a bit of problem with the food here since I am a vegetarian but that is not going to stop me from giving my best tomorrow," added Thapa.

Moreover, Kamal Adhikari's performance on Monday has inspired her to do well. "Kamal showed his skills in his event now it is my turn to show mine," concluded Thapa.

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China opens olympics in style

At last playing its long-sought role as Olympic host, China opened the Summer Games in spectacular fashion Friday with an extravaganza of fireworks and pageantry dramatizing its ascendance as a global power.

Disasters, environmental problems and human-rights disputes preceded the games, and questions abound about how they will unfold. But for an evening, at least for the 91,000 people packed into the new National Stadium, it was an interlude of fervor and magic -- capped by the spellbinding sight of a skywalking, torchbearing gymnast floating around the stadium's top rim before sending a torrent of fire upward to light the Olympic flame.

Scores of world leaders were on hand, and the potential TV audience was 4 billion worldwide for what was certainly the costliest and probably the largest opening ceremony in Olympic history.

The centerpiece was the parade of athletes, climaxing with the entry of the 639-strong Chinese team. Its flag-bearer was basketball idol Yao Ming, accompanied by 9-year-old schoolboy Lin Hao, a survivor of May's devastating earthquake in Sichuan province.

A chanting, flag-waving crowd gave a thunderous welcome, and erupted again a few moments later when President Hu Jintao declared the games open.

President Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were among the glittering roster of notables who endured heat and humidity to watch China make this bold declaration that it had arrived. Bush, rebuked by China after he raised human-rights concerns this week, is the first U.S. president to attend an Olympics on foreign soil.

Already an economic powerhouse, China is given a good chance of overtaking the U.S. atop the gold-medal standings with its legions of athletes trained intensely since childhood. One dramatic showdown will be in women's gymnastics, where the U.S. and Chinese teams are co-favorites; in the pool, Chinese divers and U.S. swimmers are expected to dominate.

The run-up to the games had powerful story lines -- China investing $40 billion to build Olympic infrastructure, reeling from the Sichuan earthquake, struggling right through Friday to diminish the stubborn smog that enveloped the stadium, known as the Bird's Nest. China's detentions of political activists, its crackdown on uprisings in Tibet and its economic ties to Sudan -- home of the war-torn Darfur region -- fueled persistent criticisms from human rights groups and calls for an Olympic boycott.

Second-guessed for award-ing the games to Beijing seven years ago, the International Olympic Committee stood firmly by its decision. It was time, the committee said, to bring the games to the homeland of 1.3 billion people, a fifth of humanity.

"For a long time, China has dreamed of opening its doors and inviting the world's athletes to Beijing for the Olympic Games," IOC president Jacques Rogge said in his speech. "Tonight, that dream comes true."

Rogge mentioned the earthquake, saying the world was moved "by the great courage and solidarity of the Chinese people." And he exhorted the assembled athletes, as role models for the world's youth, to "reject doping and cheating."

The story presented in Friday's pageantry sought to distill 5,000 years of Chinese history -- featuring everything from the Great Wall to opera puppets to astronauts, and highlighting achievements in art, music and science. Roughly 15,000 people were in the cast and crew, all under the direction of Zhang Yimou, whose early films often ran afoul of government censors for their blunt portrayals of China's problems.

He produced some majestic and ethereal imagery. At the start, 2,008 drummers beat out a pulsating rhythm with their hands. Later, a huge, translucent globe emerged from the stadium floor, and acrobats floated magically around it to the accompaniment of the games' theme song, "One World, One Dream."

It ended sensationally, when China's first Olympic superstar, former triple gymnastics gold medalist Li Ning, was hoisted by wires to the top of the stadium, circled the circumference as though he were spacewalking and then touched the torch to a thin pipe, setting off a spiral of flame to ignite the mammoth, scroll-shaped cauldron overlooking Beijing.

Li, now 44, whose six medals total at Los Angeles in 1984 signaled China's intention to be a sports powerhouse, admitted to being nervous about "the best memory of my life."

"This is a glorious but also huge task for anyone," he said. "I should never let the dream of all the Chinese people down. That was why I was nervous."

Li had trained for his part for a month. "The biggest problem is the wind," he said. "Every time I must balance myself in the air and hold the torch as close to the cauldron gas outlet. But every time the wind blew in different directions."

There were no such problems Friday, and when it was over, Li basked in his success. "That moment," he proclaimed, "means China is standing side by side with the rest of the world."

The show's script steered clear of modern politics -- there were no references to Chairman Mao and the class struggle, nor to the more recent conflicts and controversies.

A record 204 delegations paraded their athletes through the stadium -- superstars such as tennis great Roger Federer and basketball's Kobe Bryant, as well as plucky underdogs from Iraq, Afghanistan and other embattled lands. The nations marched not in the traditional alphabetical order but in a sequence based on the number of strokes it takes to write their names in Chinese. The exceptions were Greece, birthplace of the Olympics, which was given its traditional place at the start, and the Chinese team, which lined up last.

The U.S. team -- second-largest after China's with nearly 600 members -- was welcomed loudly, with many in the crowd recognizing Bryant and other basketball stars who brought up the rear. Bush rose from his VIP seat to wave at the athletes, nattily dressed in white trousers, blue blazers, red-white-and-blue-striped ties and white caps.

"It was a breathtaking experience walking into the stadium," said Oganna Nnamani, a volleyball player from Bloomington, Ill. "I am thankful to be part of this moment."

"This is the biggest stage," said LeBron James, who hopes to lead the U.S. basketball team to a gold medal.

Among the flag-bearers were basketball stars Dirk Nowitzki of Germany and Manu Ginobili of Argentina, and South African swimmer Nathalie Du Toit, who lost her lower left leg in an accident and made history by qualifying for both the able-bodied games and the Paralympics.

The American flag-bearer was 1,500-meter runner Lopez Lomong, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, who spent a decade of his youth in a refugee camp in Kenya. He's a member of the Team Darfur coalition, representing athletes opposed to China's support for Sudan. On Friday he avoided any criticism and said the Chinese "have been great putting all these things together."

Abroad, human rights activists were less generous.

"The Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee have wasted a historic opportunity to use the Beijing Games to make real progress on human rights in China," said Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch.

Few Olympics-related disturbances were reported in China. But in Katmandu, Nepal, hundreds of Tibetan exiles demonstrated outside the Chinese embassy, demanding an end to what they say is Beijing's brutal rule. In Turkey, an anti-China protester set himself on fire.

By all indications, the Chinese have overwhelmingly embraced the games, buying up tickets at a record pace, volunteering by the thousands for Olympic duties, nursing expectations of triumphs by their home team.

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American tourists killed by Chinese

A Chinese man attacked two American tourists yesterday, killing one of them, before committing suicide. The attacker was Tang Yongming, 47 who also injured an American woman and her Chinese tourist guide. The attack took place on the second level of the Drum Tower. Tang jumped from the tower after the attack, killing himself.

The Americans were family members of a coach for the United States Olympic Men’s Indoor Volleyball Team, although the victims names have yet to been released.

“Our priority in this hour is to attend to the needs of the family members, the U.S. Olympic Men’s Indoor Volleyball Team and staff, and the entire U.S. Olympic Delegation,” The USOC said in a statement. “In addition, the USOC is working closely with the United States Embassy, United States law enforcement authorities and local law enforcement authorities.”

A spokesman from the United States embassy said we are, “aware of the reports of the accidents suffered by two American citizens, we are working with the Chinese authorities to find out more on the cause of the incident.”

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Kyapchhaki finishes 46th in Olympics

Phool Maya Kyapchhaki of Nepal not only made an early exit but also failed to better her performance in the 10-metre Air Rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics today.
After her improved performance during training in Nepal where she had scored 390 out of the total 400 points, she was at least expected to break the national record of 388 points held by Bhagawati KC, but Kyapchhaki ended up with her personal best score of 380 and finished 46th out of the 47 shooters in the qualifying. Kyapchhaki scored four points more than Turkmenistan’s Yekaterina Arabova.
In the qualifying, Kyapchhaki had a poor start when she scored 93 out of 100 points in the first round.
She improved her points to 96 and 97 points in the next two rounds respectively. She was on her way to better her personal best if not the national record, but the last round proved even worse as she ended up with just 94 points.
Kyapchhaki said the pressure of Olympics was too high to overcome. “I was a bit of nervous and the Olympic pressure is always there. I tried to improve after the bad start, but it was already too late,” Kyapchhaki said after the qualification rounds.
Coach Pradeep Khati was satisfied with Kyapchhaki’s performance. “She could not handle the pressure and it was because of lack of experience in international competitions,” he said. “Kyapchhaki’s performance is satisfactory as we maintained the Asian Games score,” he said.

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