Judoka Manita Shrestha Pradhan exited the Paris Olympics from the first round after she lost her women’s 57 kg weight category Elimination round of 32 Pool A bout to Marcia Perisic of Serbia at the Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris, France on Monday.

Shrestha Pradhan, who spent one minute and two seconds on the mat, lost to the Serbian by ippon.

Shrestha Pradhan was the sixth Nepali athlete to participate in the judo competition at the Olympics. Nepal made its debut in judo in 1988 sending Ganga Bahadur Dangol and Rishiram Pradhan to the Seoul Summer Olympics. Since then, judokas Devu Thapa (Beijing 2008), Fhupu Lhamu Khatri (Rio 2016) and Sonia Bhatt (Tokyo 2020) have represented Nepal at the Olympics.

But no Nepali judokas won a bout at the Olympics.

Thapa is the only judoka from Nepal to compete in the round of 16 at Beijing 2008 after receiving a bye. But she lost her women’s 63 kg bout to Wang Chin-Fang of Chinese Taipei by ippon. Thapa was guiding Shrestha Pradhan in Paris as her coach.

Lhamu Khatri is the only Nepali judoka to last the full four minutes on the mat at an Olympics game. She lost her fight to Maricet Espinosa of Cuba though.

Shrestha Pradhan’s exit means Nepal’s four athletes have now been eliminated from the Paris Olympics.

Swimmer Duana Lama failed to progress beyond the Heat in the women's 200 m freestyle event on Sunday. Her time was 2:20.74.

Shooter Sushmita Shrestha also crashed out after finishing 42nd in the women’s 10 m air rifle qualification event.

Table tennis player Santoo Shrestha was also eliminated from the preliminary round as he suffered a 12-10, 11-3, 11-4, 11-5 defeat against Senegal’s Ibrahima Diaw in the men’s singles event.

Swimmer Alexander Shah will compete in the men’s 100 m freestyle Heat on Tuesday.