Nepal National and International Players Association President Deepak Shrestha (centre) with Olympians (from left) Kamal Bahadur Adhikari, Sangina Baidya, Jit Bahadur KC and Deepak Bista during a press meet in Kathmandu on Tuesday. Photo: THT
Kathmandu, April 9
The Olympic Torch Rally of the eighth National Games will travel to all seven provinces before the grand opening ceremony at the Nepalgunj Stadium on April 18.
The rally will begin from Biratnagar in Province-1 on Friday.
Olympian Jit Bahadur KC, the first international medal winning Nepali athlete, will be the first torch bearer, informed Nepal National and International Players Association President Deepak Shrestha at a press meet today. “We have proposed the name of Olympian Surendra Hamal to light the cauldron during the opening ceremony as he is the senior most athlete from Province-5,” Shrestha added.
The NNIPA, which has been entrusted the management aspect of the torch rally, has selected 14 Olympians — Jit Bahadur KC, Hari Bahadir Rokaya, Surendra Hamal, Pushparaj Ojha, Dambar Kunwar, Deepak Bista, Bishnu Bahadur Singh, Sambar Dutta Bhatta, Sangina Baidya, Bimala Rana Magar, Parbati Thapa, Menuka Rawat, Anita Shrestha and Kamal Bahadur Adhikari.
“We will organise a brief programme and torch rally in coordination with Regional Sports Development Committees in certain cities of six provinces before taking the torch to Province-5,” said Olympian Deepak Bista. “This is an opportunity for all the Olympians and we also want to attract the attention of the people towards sports and the Games,” he added.
The rally will reach Dhanusha (Province-2) on April 13, while it will travel to Hetauda and Chitwan (Province-3) the following day before reaching to Kaski. After a programme in Pokhara (Province-4) on April 14, the Olympians will take the torch to Lumbini. Butwal (Proince-5) will host a programme the following day and the torch will be taken to Surkhet (Province-6) for a programme on April 15. After a rally and programme in Dhangadhi (Province-7) the next day, the torch will reach Nepalgunj, where it will be taken to city tour before entering the stadium on the opening day.
The Games — which will be hosted by Province-5 — features 35 sports disciplines. A total of 5,211 athletes — 2,825 men and 2,386 women — from 11 teams will compete for 372 each gold and silver and 563 bronze medals. Seven provinces, three departmental sides and debutant NRN are taking part in the Games. The NSC has decided to reward gold medal winners and teams with Rs 15,000 and Rs 7,000 respectively, while the players who break national record will earn Rs 25,000 apiece.
Although the opening ceremony is slated for April 18 in Nepalgunj, the Games will officially kick off on Wednesday — Table Tennis (Dang), Wresting (Kapilvastu), Hockey (Banke), Squash (Lalitpur) and Lawn Tennis (Rupandehi).
Fourteen sports disciplines will be completed before the opening ceremony.
Written by Sandeep Sen
This news first appeared on https://thehimalayantimes.com/sports/torch-rally-to-connect-all-seven-provinces/ under the title “Torch Rally to connect all seven provinces”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
