Both the athletes bettered their own marks set last year and though the Nepal Athletics Association (NAA) is yet to officially declare their place for Incheon Games, chief coach Sushil Narshing Rana said they were confirmed candidate for the regional meet.

“We are yet to receive any confirmation regarding their quota but since both have broken national records, their participation in the Asian Games is confirmed. We will give ranking points to all athletes according to their performance after the second round of selection on Saturday and pick them as per the quotas we receive,” said Rana.

Sunar timed 10.3 seconds to break his previous best mark of 10.4 set during the first Lumbini National Championships earlier this year. Sunar got the better of Tilak Ram Tharu of Nepal Police Club (NPC), who timed 10.6 seconds, and Ashish Chaudhary (11.0) of Central.

Karki also won the 100m final and capped a wonderful day when she shattered her 400m record, clocking 58.5 seconds. Karki broke her previous mark of 58.8 set during the National Open Athletics Championships last year. Karki beat Manamati Bista (1:00.8) of NPC and Anita Thapa (1:04.1) of Bijeshwori School. Karki and Bista also made a one-two finish in the 100m with the former clocking 12.8, winning by one second.

Tharu triumphed in the men’s 400m finals with the timing of 48.8 seconds ahead of Nawaraj Pariyar (52.5) of TAC and Hari Lal Chaudhary (54.1) of APF. APF dominated the 5,000m race with Gopi Chand Parki and Kanchi Maya Koju winning the men’s and women’s finals respectively. Armyman Hari Kumar Rimal and Sangita Khadka of Bijeshwori won 1,500m titles. Keshari Chaudhary of NPC won the women’s long jump with a leap 5.08 metres.

Pun, Adhikari set records

Tara Devi Pun of Nepal Police Club (NPC), Kamal Bahadur Adhikari and Dinesh Shrestha of Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) broke national records in the Weightlifting selection tournament. In the women’s above-75kg, Pun lifted 70kg in snatch, 93kg in clean & jerk for a total of 163kg to break her own mark of 67kg, 92kg and 158kg on Friday. Adhikari had 117kg in snatch and 157kg in clean & jerk for a total lift of 274kg. Pun shattered the 116kg (snatch), 156kg (clean & jerk) and 272kg (total) records in men’s 69kg category. Shrestha bettered his snatch record by kg with a lift of 117kg. With a clean & jerk lift of 135kg, he lifted a total 247kg to win the men’s 94kg title. All previous records were set during the first Lumbini National Championships.

Four shooters selected

Olympians Sneh Rajya Laxmi Rana and Ful Maya Kyapchhaki were among the four shooters picked on Friday for September’s 17th Asian Games. Asmita Rai of Nepal Police Club and KV Pun of Baglung were the other two to make cut. Rana, Kyapchhaki and Rai were selected for the women’s 10m air rifle, while Pun made cut for the men’s 10m air pistol. In the 10m air rifle that had 375 points as the Minimum Qualification Score (MQS), Rana won with 379 points followed by Rai (378) and Kyapchhaki (376). Pun shot the exact 563 MQS in the air pistol.