One final chance remains for Nepal’s karate to make sure they do not have to return without a single medal from the 20th Asian Games. Seven Nepali karatekas have been knocked out of their respective categories until Tuesday.

Tenzing Sherpa is the only player left from the eight-player contingent of Nepali karate. He is facing On Tek Leong of Macau, China, in the men’s kumite +84kg quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Karate has been one of the most successful sports for Nepal in the Asian Games, after taekwondo and boxing.

Sita Rai was the first to win a medal for karate—a bronze in the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan. Samar Bahadur Gole then bagged another bronze in karate in the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand.

It took a while for Nepal to win medals in karate again. In the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea, Nepal won only a single medal—by karate’s Bimala Tamang. And it was in the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, which took place in 2023 due to Covid-19, when Nepal could announce that gold in karate was possible.

Arika Gurung won silver for Nepal in karate in Hangzhou. It was Nepal’s second silver in individual sports in the Asian Games after 25 years—the first coming from taekwondoin Sabita Rajbhandari in 1998 in Bangkok.

Nepal has won three silvers in the Asian Games so far. Alongside Rajbhandari and Gurung, the other silver was won by the paragliding team in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.

Gurung was expected to bring gold in 2026 but she crashed out in the semi-final.

And when Nepal is struggling for a single medal in the ongoing 20th edition in Nagoya, karate’s Sherpa has huge hopes and responsibility on his shoulders.

Statistically, Sherpa has an upper hand over Leong. The World Karate Federation (WKF) ranks Sherpa 139th with 165 points and Leong 212th with 55 points in the men’s kumite +84kg in the world.

However, this gap is only in the +84kg category. Leong has risen along the weight categories, having competed in the cadet -57kg and -63kg, junior -68kg, U21 -67kg, and male -75kg and -84kg all around the world, making him more experienced than Sherpa.

Meanwhile, Gurung getting knocked out without a medal in the ongoing tournament has shown that previous stats hardly matter.

Sanu Maya Thing, whose team was also expected to bring a medal, also got knocked out of the women’s individual kata Round of 16, alongside failing to reach the podium at the women’s team kata quarterfinals.

Megha Limbu and Alisa Raskoti Magar were in the women’s kata team alongside Thing. They lost the Round of 16 against South Korea and the quarterfinals against Vietnam, before losing the bronze medal show against Chinese Taipei.

“Nepal has a strong squad in team kata, and our performance today was our best so far,” said Manday Kaji Shrestha, coach of the Nepali kata team. “Despite that, being defeated makes not just me as a coach, but the entire Nepali team sad. We only began preparations for team kata two months prior to the Asian Games. We had high hopes but fell short of bringing home a medal today despite giving our best performance.”

Shrestha argued that it was not the end. “In the days ahead, we can deliver even better performances and win medals,” he said. “Looking back, we were quite behind in kata. After the Hangzhou Asiad three years ago, when the Nepal Karate Federation and the National Sports Council arranged international exposure, we reached our current level…If we focus on team kata preparations rather than individual events, we can win medals in the future.”

Similarly, Min Bahadur Tamang, Nirupa Tamang Dong and Rakesh Manandhar also went without medals in men’s kumite -60kg, women’s kumite -68kg and men’s kumite -55kg, respectively.

Despite the lack of medals this time, Dawa Gurung, general secretary of the Nepal Karate Federation, maintained that the athletes put up strong performances.

“Our athletes performed to the best of their abilities,” the general secretary said. “A few athletes, including Arika, won their preliminary bouts. In sports, whether national or international, becoming a champion requires more than just skill—everything has to go your way. I say with pride that the performance our athletes put up and how narrowly they lost, that defeat feels like a victory in itself. The players performed well. Perhaps, the managerial side fell short somewhere, and we take moral responsibility for that.”

Immediately following Tenzing’s match on Wednesday, the Nepali squad will travel to Tokyo to compete in the World Shito-Ryu Karate Championship. All karatekas who competed at the Asian Games will participate in the event.

“This is a familiar platform for us. There is no unfair play there; everything is clean. We will win gold there,” general secretary Gurung said, citing that there was a mistake during a video review in Arika’s semifinal match against Kazakhstan’s Sofya Berultseva. Arika had won a gold medal at the World Shito-Ryu Karate Championship held in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2023