Nepal to play in 28 games, including four new ones, in 18th Asian Games

This picture taken on July 12, 2018 shows people exercising in front of the Senayan sports complex in Jakarta.
Asian Games venues will be ready before Indonesia hosts the showpiece event in a month, organisers say, but the threat of terror attacks and endless traffic jams still looms over the regional Olympics. / AFP PHOTO / ADEK BERRY / TO GO WITH Indonesia-Asiad2018,FOCUS by Kiki SIREGAR

Kathmandu, July 18 – Nepal is going to play in a total of 28 matches in the upcoming 18th Asian Games including four new ones, according to the officials in the National Sports Council.

Paragliding, Climbing Sports, Pencak Silat and Skateboard are the games where Nepali players will vie with players from other nations in this biggest sport event of Asia.

The other games include Takewando, Boxing, Archery, Shooting, Athletics, Table Tennis, Karate, Badminton, Kabbadi, Cycling, Kusti, Football, Gulf, Judo and Swimming among others.

According to the Chief of the National Team Preparation Department for Asian Games, Arjun BK, the Council officials have high hope of bagging the medals in new games as he shared that the players chosen for the same sports had performed excellently in various national and international games in the past.

Nepal, which has participating in the Asian games since its beginning except in 1954 and 1962, has bagged so far 23 medals in the Asian Games. Much to the dismay, Nepal is yet to bag gold medal in the Asian Games.

However, Chief BK said that Council was confident of the players’ performance in the upcoming Asian Game more so over the newly added games. He shared that they faced problems in training in lack of the proper physical infrastructures that were destroyed or damaged by the quake and not yet reconstructed

Furthermore BK explained,” Although best training could not be imparted to the players in Kathmandu, we have made sure that the players get adequate training in various places across the country.”

He voiced that in lack of adequate budget, the Council could not impart trainings to the players on time.

However, Council’s Chief of Training, Rim Bahadur Ranabhat, the officials have high hopes for clinching medals from taekwondo, judo, boxing, weight lifting and martial arts while the hope for bagging medal in Lawn Tennis is slim. Ranabhat viewed that the other contesting countries had better and strong infrastructure for sports.

The players, who have been trained in a close camp since the mid-April this year are setting out for New Delhi in India on coming Sunday for further training. They have been train in South Korea, Thailand and China besides inside several places in the country.

Altogether 181 players-125 male and 56 female- are gearing up to represent Nepal in these various 28 games who will be accompanied by 45 coaches and 24 managers. However the number of officials to attend the event has not been determined yet.

The 18th edition of Asian Game is going to be held in Indonesian capital of Jakarta from August 18-September 1. A total of 45 nations are going to participate in the event that began since 1951.