Rajan Rokaya, Som Bahadur Kumal and Santoshi Shrestha have won historic medals at the South Asian Athletics Championships.
What you should know
Nepal has secured third place in the medal table of the 4th South Asian Senior Athletics Championship held in India. Nepal added 2 silver and 1 bronze medals on the final day of the championship held in Ranchi to finish third with a total of 2 silver and 4 bronze medals.
Rajan Rokaya won the silver medal in the men's 10,000 meters and Som Bahadur Kumal won the silver medal in the men's 800 meters. Runner Santoshi Shrestha won the bronze medal in the women's 10,000 meters, setting a new national record. Santoshi completed the distance in 34 minutes 47.77 seconds, setting a new record. She broke the record of 35 minutes 03.43 seconds set by Kanchhi Maya Koju at the SAG in Colombo in 2006.
Santoshi also won the bronze medal in the 5,000 meters on the first day of the championship with a record.
Indian runner Ravina Gaikwad won the silver medal by a second. She clocked 34 minutes 45.47 seconds. Sri Lanka's Methimi Rasa won the 10,000 meters gold in 34 minutes 39.55 seconds.
Rajan won the bronze in the men's 10,000 meters race in 30 minutes 39.15 seconds. Gopichand Parki holds the national record of 30 minutes 30.99 seconds in this event. India's Abhishek won the gold in 30 minutes 29.46 seconds, while India's Prince Kumar won the bronze in 31 minutes 17.37 seconds.
Runner Som Bahadur won the silver in the 800 meters race in 1 minute 52.03 seconds. He holds the national record of 1 minute 50.25 seconds set at the Jakarta Asian Games in 2018.
Sri Lanka's Harsha Karuna won the gold in 1 minute 51.96 seconds, while India's Meghali Banktaram won the bronze in 1 minute 52.37 seconds. This is Som's second medal at the championship. Earlier, he won bronze in the 4x100 meters mixed relay race.
In the third edition of the championship held in 2008, host India emerged as the champion with a total of 58 medals, including 20 gold medals. Sri Lanka finished second with 40 medals, including 16 gold medals. While Bhutan failed to medal, Bangladesh won 3 bronze medals and Maldives won 1 bronze medal.
