All three athletes crash out from initial round
KATHMANDU, Aug 10: All three Nepali athletes - judoka Phupu Lhamu Khatri, archer Jit Bahadur Muktan and swimmer Sirish Gurung - lost their very first round matches in the Rio Olympics 2016 and crashed out of the global sporting meet in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday.
Judoka Khatri plays full bout
Judo player Phupu Lhamu Khatri lost 11-0 against Cuban opponent Maricet Espinosa in women's U-63 kg category in the round of 32. She, however, lived up to the expectation and achieved a feat non other Nepali judokas had attained in the Olympics - playing the full bout.
She played for full four minutes. In doing so, she became the first judo player from Nepal out of four participants to play for full time.
Earlier, Ganga Bahadur Dangol (1988 Seoul Olympics), Rishi Ram Pradhan (1998 Seoul Olympics)and Debu Thapa (2008 Beijing Olympics) had represented Nepal from the same discipline in the Olympics.
“It is an big achievement for a Nepali judoka to stand in the mat for whole four minutes,” said Dharma Kumar Shrestha, the general secretary of Nepal Judo Association. “Cuba is traditionally a strong country in judo and her opponent is a continental champion. She made it to the Olympics through qualifiers while we have secured spot through wildcard.”
“Phupu could have fetched better results had she got better training opportunity for at least three or four years,” he said.
Phupu ranked 154th in the world rankings conceded a Waza-ari and a Yuko points against the 15th-ranked opponent. Waza-ari fetches second highest point in judo scoring system in which opponent is thrown on the match. Phupu was handed with Shido (penalty) thrice - twice for non combativity and once for false attack. Phupu did not earn points through other moves.
As announced earlier, Nepal Judo Association will award Rs 25,000 to Phupu for playing full bout, according to NJA General Secretary Shrestha.
Sirish sets national record
Nepali swimmer Sirish Gurung set a new national record in men's 100 m freestyle in Rio Olympics on Tuesday though he failed to progress to the second round from the initial stage of heats.
Sirish clocked 57.76 seconds in the heats and finished at the bottom among eight participants. He, however, bettered his own national record of 58.22 seconds.
Overall, Sirish finished in the 58th position among 59 participants. He had better timing than swimmer from Ethiopia only. Australian swimmer Kyle Chalmers topped the heats round with a timing of 47.90 seconds.
Nepali swimming's campaign ended in Rio following Sirish's exit from the heats round. Earlier, Gaurika Singh, the youngest athlete among 10,000 plus players in Rio Olympics, had competed in women's 100 m backstroke on Sunday. Gaurika, 13, had clocked 1 minute 8.45 seconds to complete the distance. She failed to surpass her own national record of 1 minute 7.31 seconds. She finished in the 31st position out of 34 competitors in the event.
Jit faces straight set defeat
Nepali Archer Jit Bahadur Muktan faced a straight sets defeat against Indian opponent Atanu Das in the round of 32 of men's individual recurve and crashed out from Rio.
Jit, who started with nine score against 10 of Atanu, lost in three straight sets of 26-24, 24-29, 26-30. Jit struck the bull's eye twice to score 10 points on each occasion against seven hits by his Indian opponent.
Jit scored 9, 7 and 10 from the first three arrows in the first set in comparison to 10, 9 and 10 of Atanu. The second set saw Jit scoring 9,7 and 8 against 10,9 and 10 of his Indian counterpart. Atanu improved the third set, which turned out to be the decisive with triple ten score against 8,10 and 8 of Jit.
Jit, the lone archer from Nepal to secure place for Rio through wildcard, had secured 60th position during the ranking round held for the purpose of pairing. Unlike Jit, the Indian archer Atanu had finished fifth in the ranking round.
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