Former national martial arts players of Nepal formally launched Champions Martial Arts Academy at Balaju on Friday.

The academy, set up on two-and-a-half ropanis of leased land, had been in operation since 2020. Currently, 90 martial arts players have been training at the academy in morning and evening sessions.

Shyam Sunwar has been training taekwondo players while Yugen Gurung and Lal Bahadur Baram are taekwondo coaches. The karate and taekwondo teams of APF Club have also been training in the academy.

The academy was started under joint initiation of former national Nepali players currently residing abroad. The 2010 South Asian Games (SAG) karate gold medallist Sunil Lama and national taekwondo player Pushpa Thapa, who are residing in the United States, the South Asian Judo Championship gold medallist Saro Maharjan, who is living in France, the 11th SAG wushu gold medallist Raju Maharjan, who in Australia and Sujan Joshi, the former national taekwondo player living in Macau had joined hands to start the academy.

The primary aim of the academy is to produce players from the local level. “We will also start training judo, boxing and wushu in the coming days,” director Sushila Lama said, adding that they have invested a budget of Rs20 million to set up the academy.

The academy also feted SAG gold medallists Ayash Shakya, Mandey Kaji Shrestha and Sangita Basyal, silver medallist Apsara Karki, bronze medallist Mukunda Maharjan, Olympian taekwondoka Nisha Rawal, among others.

The academy also feted Nepal’s first international medallist Jeet Bahadur KC of athletics, four-times SAG gold medal winner taekwondoka Deepak Bista, double gold medalist karate Dipak Shrestha, karate coach Dhruba Bikram Malla among others.