Gaurika Singh, 13-year old, won a historic individual medal for Nepal in swimming as the country’s search for gold in the 12th South Asian Games in India continued on Sunday.

On the second day of competition, Nepal claimed two silver medals—both in wushu—apart from one bronze each in swimming, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling. Singh claimed a bronze in women’s 200m backstroke to bring Nepal’s first ever podium finish in individual event in Games’ 32-year history. Nepal had claimed a gold in the 1999 SAG in women’s 4x100m relay only due to the disqualification of India and Sri.

The Nepali men’s football team made a flying start to their campaign as Nawayug Shrestha’s hat-trick set them up for a 5-0 drubbing of Bhutan. The women’s team also registered their second consecutive victory after a 2-0 victory over Maldives.

Remarkable Singh

Teenager swimmer Singh had broken almost every other national records in the swimming event she had participated in when her family brought her to Nepal from London two years earlier to compete in national meet.

In her return to Nepal one year later, she improved her record timings for which she credits her British coach Rhys Gormley. And on Sunday she created history with yet another record timing. Singh clocked 2:26.93 to break her previous best record of 2:37.87 by a huge margin.

Sri Lanka won gold and India took silver in the 200m breaststroke event. Sofia Shah finished fourth in the women’s 400m individual medley, clocking 5:47.69 in an event that India dominated with both gold and silver. Sri Lanka ended up third.  Shuvam Shrestha finished at the bottom of the eight-man 100m final in 1:17.18. Sandeep Sejwal of India claimed gold in 1:03.14. Sonira Bista clocked 1:29.01 in women’s 100m breaststroke with Bang-ladesh, Pakistan and India making podium finishes.

Twin silver in wushu

Wushu is always expected to fetch gold for Nepal in the regional meet and it fell agonisingly short after Bijay Sinjali and Sushmita Tamang were restricted to silver in the men’s and women’s chang quan under taulo category.

Sinjali accumulated 8.80 points, losing gold medal to Indian opponent by just 0.06 points. Pakistan took bronze in the event. Tamang, who brought third silver to Nepal in the Games, earned 8.82 with Sri Lanka collecting 9.45. India won bronze.

Double delight in football

In the men’s football, Shrestha scored second hat-trick of his career in Nepal’s convincing victory. Shrestha had also scored a hat-trick against Maldives during the recently concluded Bangabandhu Gold Cup football tournament in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Bishal Rai and Anjan Bista added one apiece in the triumph. “We wanted to score early in the game but that didn’t happen. I am happy that we converted the chances that came our way in the latter stages of the game,” said Nepal coach Raju Kaji Shakya. Nepal will now take on Bangladesh in their second and final Group ‘B’ match of the Games. Meanwhile, the women’s team backed up their convincing 3-0 victory over Bangladesh by another win over Maldives. Anu Lama opened the scoring in the 36th minute before Niru Thapa sealed the victory in the 84th.

Weightlifting

Junu Maya Chhantyal gave second bronze from the event winning the women’s 63kg third place. Chhantyal lifted 55kg in snatch and 70kg in clean and jerk for a total lift of 125kg. On Saturday, Bikash Thapa had given Nepal a silver with Devi Maya Chaudhary claiming bronze.

Wrestling

Ram Babu Yadav bagged wrestling’s second bronze a day after Saroj Yadav finished third in the men’s 65kg weight category. Ram Babu lost 61kg semi-final match to an Indian opponent.

Table Tennis

Nepal struck bronze medal in the men’s team event after losing 3-0 to Sri Lanka in the semi-finals. Earlier the Nepali team beat Bangladesh. The women’s team crashed out after losing to Bangladesh 3-2.