KATHMANDU, Dec 8: Nepal will participate in two weight categories in women´s judo that were added recently to the 11th South Asian Games to be held in Dhaka from January 29 to February 9.
Nepal Judo Association (NJA) Chairman Deepak Harsh Bajracharya informed myrepublica.com that Nepal is going to compete in the events as there are high chances of winning medals. Only seven weight categories in men´s events were included earlier.
The South Asian Olympic Committee´s meeting held last month in Bangladesh decided to add the under-52 kg and under-63 kg weight categories. However, the total number of judo players to compete in SAG remains seven. As the decision to include two female players has been ascertained, two players in men´s category will have to drop out.
Parshuram Chaudhary (U-60 kg) of Nepal Police, Ramesh Magar (U-66 kg) of Kathmandu, Deepak Shrestha (U-73 kg) of Kathmandu, Shree Ram Makaju (U-81 kg) of Nepal Police, Raju Shrestha (U-90 kg) of Banke, Kaluman Tamang (U-100 kg) of Nepal Army and Rajan Joshi (above 100 kg) of Kathmandu were selected during the men´s final selections held on November 16.
“We had won silver medals in both events in the women´s category in the previous edition of SAG,” Bajracharya said, adding, “That´s why we will participate in the added category.”
Nepal won two silver medals during the 10th SAG in Colombo in the women´s weight categories that have been added recently. Olympian Debu Thapa (U-63 kg) and Ranju Rai (U-52 kg) had won silver medals. Both of them will compete in the selections on Saturday for the upcoming SAG.
After the selection of the female players, five male players from among the seven will be finalized. Those to be excluded from SAG will compete in the Rajiv Gandhi International Judo Championship to be held in Jaipur, India.
NJA will also organize a veterans´ judo championship on Saturday. The competition will include events for 35-45 years and above 45 years. The winners will bag Rs 3,000 and the runners-up Rs 2,000 while the second runners-up will get Rs 1,000 each.
Likewise, the Open Judo Championship will be held after the 11th SAG, in memory of NJA former chairman Ambika Bahadur Chhetri, said Bajracharya.
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