Editorial»
Hits and misses
KATHMANDU, FEB 08 -
Nepal’s search for gold at the 11th South Asian Games (SAG) being held in Bangladesh finally ended on Sunday, the 10th day of the event, when martial arts players Binita Maharjan and Sunil Lama took top honours in Wushu and Karate respectively. On the 11th day, Nepal, as of this writing, has bagged five more golds to take its overall medal tally to 36, which places it tied for fifth on the table with Afghanistan. Although Nepal is still a long way behind the top four — Sri Lanka is fourth with 19 golds and 88 medals — things could have been much worse. The Nepali squad seemed to be jinxed right from the start. First, many members of the Nepali contingent were injured, some severely, when the elevator they were in plummeted to the ground from the fourth floor of the Imperial hotel. Then there was the brouhaha which erupted when Nepali kabadi team officials started quarrelling among themselves, leaving the kabadi players in tears and begging for clam. Things would get worse.
The football team which went to Bangladesh in search of gold was knocked out of the tournament after losing their first two matches. Nepali lifters, known for their consistency at the SAG, could not earn a single medal; the men’s hockey team conceded a whopping 79 goals in their four outings. As if that was not enough, when the country did finally manage to bag a gold, the organisers played the old national anthem and the Nepali flag was hoisted the wrong way up.
Nepalis, it seemed, had had enough. At the end of the ninth day, with not a single gold in their kitty, some Nepali sports lovers were calling on the entire squad to return home to save further embarrassment for the country. Then, Binita Maharjan and Sunil Lama struck gold. With five more golds on the 11th day, a semblance of belief in their sporting representatives has returned among people here.
One thing is for sure: there has been no shortage of action in this incident-filled sporting fiesta. Irrespective of what happens on the 12th and the final day, some deductions can be made both about the state of Nepali sports and SAG on the basis of what has been witnessed so far. All seven golds for Nepal have come through martial arts. While the robust state of the discipline is something to cheer about for the country, Nepal’s dismal outings in events like weightlifting and men’s football, the traditional strongholds, is a measure of how other countries in the region have caught up with it. Nepali sporting authorities will have to do some serious rethinking about how these sports are being conducted in the country and work at making the domestic meets more competitive. For their part, the women’s football team, which was put together barely five months ago, through their run to the final has shown that the teamwork and the desire to win count more than experience at international events. The organisers will have to pull up their socks too. It is to be hoped that the embarrassing glitches witnessed at the 11th SAG will not be repeated come 2012 in India.
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