National Sports Council (NSC) on Friday announced that Nepal will participate in 23 events at the 19th Asian Games set to take place from September 10 to 25 in Hangzhou, China.

The games were picked on the basis of players’ performances at previous Asian Games and recent success at national and international levels, NSC member secretary Tanka Lal Ghising said while unveiling the NSC’s 112th board meeting decisions.

Taekwondo, karate, boxing, athletics, cycling, golf, wrestling, weightlifting, judo, swimming, triathlon, wushu, archery, basketball, fencing, shooting, table tennis and badminton will have both men's and women's players. Only female players will compete in football, kabaddi, handball and volleyball. The men's team will compete in Twenty20 cricket at the Games.

The sports executive body of the country has also directed the respective associations to select the players for the Games within 10 days. NSC has expected a participation of around 150 players, 28 coaches and 20 managers in China.

Nepal had competed in 29 games during the 18th edition of Asiad held in 2018 in Indonesia and returned home with a single silver medal after the men's paragliding team secured second position in the cross-country event.

Meanwhile, NSC has also decided to include 38 games including two exhibition events at the Ninth National Games to be held in Gandaki Province from June 5 to 11. Shot put and canyoning have been included as exhibition games.

Apart from them, athletics, badminton, table tennis, cricket, football, tennis, hockey, boxing, volleyball, kabaddi, weightlifting, shooting, gymnastics, swimming, handball, judo, wrestling, soft tennis, squash, taekwondo, wushu, basketball, bodybuilding, chess, kho kho, karate, full contact karate, ITF taekwondo, sepak takraw, golf, archery, cycling, fencing, triathlon, paragliding and rugby have been included.

All the events will have both men's and women's categories.

It was the first board meeting of the NSC after the new NSC Act was enforced in 2020.