Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) claimed the team championship title with nine gold medals in the National Taekwondo Tournament at the Nepal Taekwondo Academy in Lalitpur on Saturday.

Held under the National Sports Council Championships, the departmental giants secured seven gold, five silver and three bronze medals in gyeorugi besides two gold and silver each and one bronze in poomsae. Nepal Police Club (NPC)  finished second eight gold medals in total—six gold, four silver and three bronze in gyeorugi  along with two gold, one silver and two bronze in poomsae. Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club won the third place honours with two gold, three silver and bronze medals in each in gyeorugi. In poomsae, APF bagged one gold and two bronze medals.

Central Region and Eastern Region were the only non-departmental teams to win a gold medal each. Bhupen Shrestha of Central won gold in men’s 87kg division while Shina Maden of Eastern Region bagged U-20 women poomsae title. Bir Bahadur Mahara of NPC was declared the best male player and Ashmita Khadka of APF the best female player in gyeorugi. APF’s Nabin Shrestha and Army’s Nita Gurung were declared the best male and female players in poomsae.

On Saturday, Nima Gurung of NPC grabbed gold in women’s below 53kg division. The 12th South Asian Games silver medallist beat Sandhya Kumari Singh of the East in the final. Kalpana Chaudhary of Army defeated Sarita Shrestha of Western Region in below 46kg title match. 

In the men’s below 58kg division final, Sagar Guvaju of Army beat Kapil Thapa of the Central. Anoj Malla of NPC beat Chandra Rana Magar of APF in the final to win the  below 54kg gold. The three-day event saw 176 players from eight teams—five regional and three departmental—compete for 22 gold medals: 16 in gyeorugi and six in poomsae.

Tamang sibling win singles titles

Tamang siblings Nangsal Devi and Ratnajit of TAC defended their singles title in the National Badminton Championship in Mahendranagar on Saturday as the departmental team clean swept all five gold medals on the last day of the tournament. Army wrapped up the event with six out of seven gold medals.

Nangsal raced to a 21-13, 21-14 victory over Shikshya Shrestha of APF to clinch her third singles title in a row. Ratnajit saw off Dipesh Dhami of APF, recovering from the first set deficit to win 19-21, 21-6, 21-12 for his fourth title in a row. Ratnajit teamed up with Nabin Shrestha to win the men’s doubles title. The pair defeated APF pair Dhami and Bijeet Thapa Magar 21-19, 21-14 in the final. Dhami and Thapa Magar’s pair had defeated the same opponent in men’s doubled during the team event final.   

Nangsal and Anumaya Rai also won the mixed doubles title. The duo beat Puja Shrestha and Shikshya Shrestha of APF 21-19, 21-15. Tamang duo also added mixed doubles title under their belt defeating Bijeet Thapa Magar and Shova Gauchan 16-21, 21-19, 21-10. Except for the team event, Army won gold in all six events: men’s and women’s singles and doubles, mixed doubles and women’s team event.

Police clinch football title

NPC lifted the National Men’s Football Tournament defeating Army 5-4 on penalties in Ghorahi on Saturday. The match was directly decided from the spot after regulation time ended in a 0-0 deadlock. Rajiv Gurung was denied by NPC goalie Roshan Khadka while Suman Lama, Buddha Lama, Tej Tamang, Dinesh Rajbanshi and Nir Kumar Rai converted all penalties for the NPC. For the Army, George Prince Karki, Hiranya Magar, Bivek Basnet and Rupesh KC converted from spot.

APF won the third place playoff defeating Far-western Region 4-3 in penalty shootout after a 2-2 stalemate in the regulation time. Maniram Chaudhary had scored twice for Farwest while Mahesh Lama and Ashis Lama hit the targets for APF.

Army claim hockey championship

TAC claimed both the men’s and women’s titles of the National Hockey Championship in Hetauda on Saturday. The departmental rallied from a goal down to beat Farwest 2-1 in the men’s final while the women team eased past Central 4-0. Rajendra Karki had given 32nd minute lead to Farwest in the men’s event. But Dipendra Airee equalised in the 59th minute before Pradip Rajbanshi hit the winner in the 69th.  In the women’s final, Sita Chaudhary netted twice while Pinki Sinjali and Sitamaya Bal added one each for Army.