Nepal is all set to take part in what is often dubbed its biggest international sporting event: the 19th Asian Games (Asiad), to be held in Hangzhou, China, from September 23 to October 8.

Given Nepal’s level of training and infrastructure, success at the Olympics, the biggest stage of them all, will continue to be elusive for the country in the foreseeable future. Yet when it comes to the Asian Games, Nepali athletes can harbour hope, if a slim one, of medals.

Nepal have competed in the Olympics on 14 occasions since their maiden appearance in the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. But no Nepali athlete has earned a medal in the biggest global sports extravaganza. This is not counting the bronze taekwondo player Bidhan Lama earned in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. But taekwondo at the time was only an exhibition sport and not a recognised one.

Asiad, the second biggest global platform for Nepali sports after the Olympics, attracts keen interest from the Nepali sports fraternity, given Team Nepal’s past (albeit limited) success.

Nepal have never won gold in Asiad, but they have secured silver twice and bagged 22 bronze medals. Since their participation in the inaugural games in New Delhi in 1951, Nepal have competed in 16 of 18 editions held so far (save for the Manila Games in 1954 and the Jakarta Games in 1962).

Even this time, the country’s sports authorities don’t expect gold and say it would be a miracle if the country wins one.

In the last edition in Indonesia in 2018, Nepal competed in 29 games with a 187-member contingent. Paragliding saved Nepali blushes, securing its lone silver in the Games, the first silver in 20 years, in the team cross-country event. It was the first and only occasion Paragliding was included in Asiad. Before that, taekwondo player Sabita Rajbhandari secured the first-ever silver for Nepal in the 1998 Bangkok Games.

Nepal returned with a single medal in each of the past three editions—2010 Guangzhou, 2014 Incheon and 2018 Jakarta and Palembang—despite fielding strong contingents of 140, 203 and 187 players, respectively.

Nepal’s wait for a maiden medal ended in the 1982 Delhi Games, where they grabbed eight bronze medals—four each in boxing and taekwondo—the country’s biggest tally in a single Asiad.

Sizable presence

Nepal has announced a contingent of 253 players competing in 29 different games. The National Sports Council (NSC), the country’s sports governing body, has classified taekwondo, karate and boxing as potential medal-earners. According to Prachanda Sharma, the secretary of the Asian Games Preparation Committee, the classification was done based on the team’s achievement in the previous Asiads.

Leaving aside paragliding, included only in the last edition, Nepal's remaining 23 medals have come from boxing, taekwondo and Karate. While 14 medals came from taekwondo, boxing fetched six and karate brought in three.

Nepal is also competing in e-sports and dance, which have been included in the Asiad for the first time. The NSC has also classified e-sports, golf and canyoning as potential medal-winning events.

Among the 40 events included in the Asiad, Nepal has chosen to participate in 29. “Of the events we are competing in, we picked 23 based on our achievements in the 2019 South Asian Games. They all won us at least a medal each,” said Sharma.

The 23 games are taekwondo, karate, boxing, athletics, cycling, golf, wrestling, weightlifting, judo, swimming, triathlon, wushu, archery, basketball, fencing, shooting, table tennis, badminton, football, kabaddi, volleyball, handball and cricket.

Canyoning, tennis, rugby, dance, e-sports and squash are the other sports picked with the hope of a good outing. “We have done rather well in canyoning, tennis, rugby and squash in recent times,” Sharma said.

Cricket, e-sports, canyoning, rugby and dance will have male players only while 3X3 basketball, kabaddi, handball, football and shooting will feature exclusively women’s teams. The other games will have both men’s and women’s participation.

Unsatisfactory preparation

Sharma, who leads Nepal’s preparations for the Asian Games, is himself unsatisfied with progress. The Nepali team started special preparations on July 17, less than three months before the Asiad’s kick-off.

Special training means combined training with a closed camp. NSC, however, has not arranged for a closed camp. Instead, it gives allowances of Rs2,000 per person per day, and the respective team has to manage everything, including food, accommodation, diet and training with the amount. This is grossly insufficient for players taking part in what are physically demanding games.

“We wanted to start training from the middle of January but could not do so, as the Finance Ministry at the time released just Rs20 million. This happened even though Rs100 million had been set aside for the Asian Games preparations in last year’s budget. The rest of the budget has been withheld since January 31,” said Sharma.

According to Sharma, NSC had demanded Rs310 million from the government for the special training that started on July 17, but the Finance Ministry released only 210 million. “We had to compromise on our training plans and allowances due to the insufficient budget,” he said.

Sharma would not say how many medals Nepal expects to win this time. “Our medal tally may be similar to our tallies in the past few editions,” he said.

Despite sluggish preparations on the part of the state, Karate coach Kushal Shrestha shared a positive outlook. “We have new faces in the team. They have lots of talent and are working hard to end the karate medal drought since the 2014 Incheon Asiad,” said Shrestha.

“The special camp of three or four months is insufficient. But the players have been training independently for years for excellence in their respective fields. I am hopeful that we can bring home medals,” said the former gold medalist of the South Asian Games (SAG). “But what will hinder our performance the most in the Asiad is lack of international exposure and match experience for our athletes.”

The karate team is set to fly to Belgium on Wednesday for a camp, and they are also scheduled to compete at the World Shitoryu Championship in Indonesia after training for a couple of weeks.

The men’s and women’s volleyball and judo teams have been under the training of foreign coaches for over a month. Likewise, the golf team has been training in India since the last week of June. Taekwondo, boxing, wrestling, kabaddi and wushu are among the other teams training abroad for the Games.

The 2019 South Asian Games twin-gold medalist karateka Manday Kaji Shrestha was not optimistic about the Asian sports meet. “The successful countries in sports come up with multi-year plans and implement them thoroughly. They have well-equipped facilities and sports research centres, and their players need not constantly worry about their future. But our training begins only a couple of months prior to the mega events like Asiad,” he said.

“The situation here is dismal. Most athletes have to give up their dreams and search for alternative jobs to earn a living. Or they follow in the footsteps of other athletes who have emigrated abroad in search of a better future. Nepal won’t be able to excel in international sports meets so long as this situation persists.”