Nepal will not return home from Hangzhou, China empty-handed.

Nepal has been assured of at least one bronze medal after its women’s kabaddi team progressed into the semi-finals as Group B runners up on Wednesday thanks to defending champions Iran who eliminated Bangladesh from the group stage with a 54-16 victory.

Nepal had defeated Bangladesh 37-24 in their opening match before losing to Iran 43-19 on Tuesday.

Iran advanced as group winners, while Bangladesh bowed out without a win.

Nepal made their first ever appearance in women’s kabaddi at the Asian Games.

“Our women’s team have created history in their first ever appearance at the Asian Games,” women’s head coach Parbati Rai told BBC Nepali.

Captain Menuka Kumari Rajbanshi said it was a dream come true for her team. “We were given this great opportunity to participate at the Games. Medal was expected from our team and now we have succeeded in bagging one.”

“It is a result of our dedication and teamwork. We trained hard in India for three months and it paid off”, Rajbanshi added.

The team will be awarded bronze in the kabaddi even if it loses the match in the semi-finals.

Up neNepali women will face a tough challenge from India— champions in 2010 and 2014 and runners-up in 2018— on Friday.

India defeated Thailand 54-22 to top Group A. They were held to a 34-34 tie by Chinese Taipei in their opening match but had bounced back to down South Korea 56-23 in their second group game. India, on seven points, finished above Chinese Taipei on point difference.

Iran face Chinese Taipei in Friday’s other semi-final showdown.

Nepal have fielded a contingent of 253 players competing in 29 sports in Hangzhou. But none of the players in other categories have reached closer to a medal.

Nepal’s badminton team also ended their tour in disappointment on Wednesday after Rashila Maharjan, Bishnu Katuwal, Nangsal Tamang, Jivan Acharya all lost their respective matches.

Nepal’s women’s volleyball team lost their dead-rubber Group G match to India 25-23, 26-28, 25-23, 25-17.

Runner Gopi Chandra Parki improved his personal best in the men’s 5000m race by 32.5 seconds after taking 14 minutes 22.15 seconds but finished in the 11th position.

Taekwondo, karate and boxing were viewed as the potential medal earners for Nepal. Of the total 24 medals (two silvers) Nepal won at the Asian Games since its first participation in New Dehli in 1951, twenty-three have come from combat sports like boxing, taekwondo and Karate.

However, Nepal’s boxing and taekwondo journey has already ended without a medal, this time as well. Nepal has been able to win just a single medal in each of the past three editions. In 2018, Nepal won silver in paragliding.

Karate competition begins on Friday.

Nepal’s men’s cricket team exited from the competition on Tuesday after losing their quarter-final match to India by 23 runs. But they will return home full of memories as they smashed multiple T20I records including the fastest T20I century, fastest T20I fifty, biggest win by run-margin and the biggest T20I total in a single innings en-route to last eight, with all records coming against part-timers Mongolia.