With medal prospects extremely bleak at the Asian Games in Indonesia, the Nepali athletes are content on at least improving on their personal milestone, and swimmer Tisa Shakya did exactly in the women’s 100m freestyle heat at the GBK Aquatic Centre in Jakarta on Monday.

Nepali shooters, taekwondokas, wushuka, shuttlers and cyclists were in action but none made any marked impression apart from tennis duo Mayanka and Mahika Rana who made it to the women’s doubles quarter-finals. Competing against the world clash swimmers, Shakya understandly finished bottom of her heat in 1 minute, 03.96 seconds. But the mark was improvement of her previous best of 1:07.25. Shakya said she somewhat achieved her goal at the Asiad. “My goal here was to improve on my timing and I am happy to have achieved that,” said Shakya.

Gaurika Singh holds the Nepali national record in the women’s 100 freestyle at 1:00.79. Singh, who struck a silver and three bronze medals during the 12th South Asian Games in India,  herself was competing in the event and finished sixth with the timings of 1:00.82. Both failed to qualify for the finals. In the overall standings, Singh finished in 18th and Shakya in 22nd place.

Singh, who stole the limelight at the 2016 Rio Olympics as the youngest athletes at the age of 13 years and 255 day, had won the 200m medley silver and bronze medals in the 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke and 400m freestyle.

Singh who was competing at the Asiad for the first time, said: “Its always difficult for any athlete to compete at such a big platform. This is just the start and I am pleased with my performance. I hope to fare better in the remaining events.” She will also compete in the 50m and 200m freestyle. “I hope to improve on 200m free,” said Singh who holds the national record at the event in 2:14.59.

Taekwondo

Sagar Guvaju beat Tenzin Dorji of Bhutan 54-40 in the men’s below 58kg round-of-32 bout. Guvaju, however, lost the last-16 match against Vo Quoc Hung of Vietnam 25-5. Sangit Basyal lost the women’s below 67kg round-of-16 match to Darlene Mae Arpon of Philippines 20-17. Neema Gurung lost to Laetitia Aoun of Lebanan 23-10 in the women’s below 53kg  last-16 match.

Gyani Chunara will take on Kinzang of Bhutan in the women’s below 57kg round-of-16 match while Nishal Rawal will be up against Pan Gao of China in the women’s above 67kg round-of-16 clash on Tuesday. Anoj Pujari will take on Ruslan Zhaparov of Kazakhstan in the men’s above 80kg weight division.

Wushu

The 12th SAG gold medallists Nima Gharti Magar finished second from bottom in the women’s Nanquan and Nandao allround a total 17.87 points. In all, 12 wushuka were contesting in the event. Lu Tang of China won gold, Darya Latisheva of Uzbekistan claimed silver and Ka Ying Yuen of Hong Kong claimed bronze medal.

Gharti Magar scored 9.17 points in Nandao on Monday after earning 8.70 points in Nanquan on Sunday. The points tally was a marked improvement for Gharti Magar who had scored a collective 16.91 on her way to title in 12th SAG.

Yubraj Thapa is languishing at 21st position among the 23 competitors in the men’s Nanquan & Nangun Allround. Thapa scored 8.22 points in nangun on Monday. Jingde Li of China lead the standings with 9.75 points. The 12th SAG silver medallist will compete in the Nandao event on Tuesday. Nepal coach Amar Kumar Thing was satisfied with the performance of his players. “Both were really good and if they continue with the same intensity, we can expect much better outcome at the South Asian level,” said Thing.

Shooting

Sishe Chaudhary scored 581.0 out of 600 points in the men’s 10m Air Rifle qualification round to finish in 42nd place overall. In all, 44 shooters had taken part in the event won by Haoran Yang of China. Deepak Kumar of India won silver and Shaochuan Lu of Chinese Taipei claimed bronze medal. Chaudhary can take solace from the fact that he achieved a minimum points for Olympic qualifications, which is set at 570 points. He will be eligible to apply for Olympic Games wild card. Nepal coach Pradeep Khati believed Chaudhary’s performance was satisfactory given the level of the tournament.

Sushmita Nepal finished bottom of the 46-member women’s 10m Air Rifle qualification round with 587.1 points. Ruozhu Zhao of China struck gold, Eunhea Jung of South Korea won silver and Nandinzaya Gankhuyag of Mongolia claimed the bronze medal in the event.

Tennis

Rana siblings Mayanka and Mahika advanced to the women’s doubles pre-quarterfinals on Monday. The Nepali pair beat Aminath Irafu Mahir and Zeina Abdul Rasheed of Maldives 6-4, 6-1. The duo will take on Japanese players on Wednesday. In the men’s doubles, Samrakshyak Bhusan Bajracharya and Avishek Bastola play Sumit Nagal and Ram Kumar Ramnath of India on Wednesday.

Badminton

Nepal’s interest in men’s team event ended with a quarter-finals defeat to Chinese Taipei on Monday. The Nepali team comprised of Ratna Jit Tamang, Dipesh Dhami, Bikash Shrestha and Nabin Shrestha. In the singles, top seed Tamang lost to Tienchen Chou 21-13, 21-16, Dhami succumbed to a 21-5, 21-14 defeat against Wang Tzuwei and Bikash went down 21-10, 21-11 against Jenhao Hsu.    

Cycling

Ramesh Magar finished seventh in the downhill mountain-biking. Magar completed the course in 2min 28.538sec. Mukhib Khoiful of Indonesia secured gold in with the timings of 2:16.687. Chinese Taipei’s Chiang Shengshan secured silver and Thailand’s Sukchanya Suebsakun claimed bronze medal.