President Ramchandra Poudel has inaugurated the 15th Central President Running Shield Games at Dasharath Stadium on Wednesday.

President Paudel inaugurated the tournament by handing over the Olympic torch to Olympian Judo player Devu Thapa. After Devu, Olympians Kamal Bahadur Adhikari of weightlifting, Saraswati Chaudhary of athletics and Bharatsinh Mahata of Para Taekwondo carried the Olympic torch and circled the track.

President Paudel said that this competition is very important because the best way to produce players through sports is to select players from the school level. He said that sports will help a lot in making a good citizen and emphasized that the state should increase investment as Nepal is an excellent destination for adventure sports. In the

opening, teams from all seven provinces, judges, various costumes, art and culture were marched together. Srishti KC, a Kabaddi player from Sudurpaschim Province, took the oath on behalf of the players and Karate Prakashmohan Dhaubdel on behalf of the judges.

Youth and Sports Minister Tejulal Choudhary said that the Presidential Running Shield is an important means of encouraging sportsmen from the school level, so it will be organized in a more sophisticated manner.

Rakhep Member-Secretary Tanklal Ghising said that President Running Shield was started as a means of producing talented players by selecting players from all 753 local levels. This is the fourth presidential running shield during Ghisingh's tenure. Since the 12th edition, the regular president has been running shield.

686 athletes selected from seven provinces will compete for 66 gold, 66 silver and 98 bronze medals. The three-day tournament includes 6 sports namely Athletics, Volleyball, Kabaddi, Karate, Taekwondo and Usu. The competition will continue till Friday.

Praveen and Sangeeta's record

Praveen Rana Magar of Bagmati and Sangeeta Bick of Far West have set a new junior national record in athletics. Praveen set a record in the men's 100m race and Sangeeta in the women's 400m race. Both will get 10,000 prizes for their achievements.

Praveen won the record gold in the prescribed distance of 10.76 seconds at Dasharath Stadium. Earlier, Ashish Chaudhary had a record of 10.90 seconds. He made that record in 2070. Sujan Mandal of Koshi was second and Shubham Bamrel of Lumbini was third.

Sangeeta completed the prescribed distance in 1 minute 01.19 seconds and won gold. Sangeeta broke the record of 1 minute 01.30 seconds set by Aruna Rizal in 2076. Anisha Tharu of Bagmati came second and Krishna Rana of Karnali came third.

Dina Gopali of Bagmati won the girl's 100m race. Dina clocked 12.81 seconds. Arushi Bhattarai of Lumbini came second and Anushka Adhikari of Gandaki state came third.

Dhirendra Bick of Karnali won the gold in the students' 400m race. He spent 51.89 seconds. Prakash Mahato of Gandaki won silver and Bikram Bista of Sudurpaschim won bronze.

Avinash Sunar of Bagmati became the first in student high jump. He jumped 1.68 meters. Ujjwal Kumar Bick of Sudurpaschim was second and Vivek Mahato of Gandaki was third. Sushmita Choudhary of Sudurpaschim became the first with a jump of 1.38 meters. Savita Khatun Mia from Gandaki came second and Hira Budha from Karnali came third.

Vivek Chaudhary from Sudurpaschim became the first student of Satput. He threw a distance of 13.61 meters. Rajan Bhandari of Lumbini came second and Keshav Vick of Karnali came third. Bagmati's Elina Bick won the gold by throwing a distance of 8.69 meters in the women's event. Pooja Saud of Sudurpaschim won the silver and Jakjan Chaudhary of Lumbini won the bronze.