Kathmandu, July 21 – Five athletes will be vying in the 32nd Summer Olympics to be held in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, from July 23 to August 8. They will be competing in four games.Nepali athletes will be participating in athletics, shooting, judo and swimming competitions. Saraswati Chaudhary will compete in athletics, Kalpana Pariyar in shooting, Soniya Bhatta in judo and Gaurika Singh and Alex Shah in swimming.
Chaudhary will be vying in the 100 metres dash under the ‘universality’ quota. She will be running the race on July 30.
Pariyar will compete in the 10-metre air rifle shooting event. She is participating in the Tokyo 2020, securing wild card. The event will be held on July 24. If she gets through the qualification round, she will be competing in the final stage of this event to be held in the evening the same day. Soniya Bhatta will vie in judo. She is also participating in the Olympics through wild card. International Judo Federation is going to include Soniya in Olympics on the basis of seniority. The 19-year-old Soniya will compete under the 48-kg group. Her match will be held in July 24.
Similarly, Alex Shah and Gaurika Singh are participating in swimming from Nepal. Both the players are participating in the Olympics under the universal quota. Swimmer Alex will represent Nepal in men’s 100-metrs free style. He would compete in hit round of men’s 100-metre free style on July 27. Similarly, Alex will compete in another round on July 28 if he passes the hit round and final round on July 29 if he wins the competition of July 28.
Likewise, Gaurika is participating in hit round in women’s 100-metre free style on July 28. In overall, Nepal has not been able to perform remarkably in the Olympic Games. Its competition has been limited only in participation. Looking at Nepal’s history up to the 14th series in Olympics, no achievements have been gained so far.
Nepal’s presence in the Olympics had begun in 1964 with the 18th edition held in Tokyo. So far, 85 players had represented the country in the sports mega meet, but none had brought any official award to home.However, Taekwondo’s Deepak Bista and Sangeena Baidhya have completed the selection rounds. Nepal has so far competed in eight genres: athletics, boxing, swimming, taekwondo, weight lifting, shooting, judo and archery. The participation in the athletics is uninterrupted since1964.
This time, Nepal hopes to improve its performance in the Olympics instead of eyeing on the trophy. Swimming, shooting and judo players have already reached Japan in course of taking part in the one of the world’s major sports tournament while the athletics team will be leaving for Tokyo on July 24.(RSS)
