NAGOYA, Japan, Sept 21: Erika Gurung was two seconds away from a place in the women’s under 68kg kumite final at the 20th Asian Games in Japan. By the end of the day, Nepal’s strongest medal hope had lost both her semifinal and bronze medal bouts.
At Toyohashi Gymnasium on Sunday, Erika’s semifinal against Kazakhstan’s world number one Sofya Berultseva stood at 1–1 with two seconds left. Erika had scored first and would have won if the bout had ended level. Berultseva’s coach requested a video review, however, and officials awarded the Kazakh fighter a yuko, worth one point. Erika’s chance of reaching the final was gone.
She still had a shot at bronze against Saudi Arabia’s Mostafa Dina. Leading 7–5 with 12 seconds remaining, Erika looked set to secure a medal. But Mostafa landed an ippon worth three points in the closing moments and won 8–7.
Erika had beaten Jordan’s Nasir Yara 7–1 in the quarterfinals. Her meeting with Berultseva carried added weight: the Kazakh had defeated her in the final of the 19th Asian Games in China. Since then, Erika had also won silver medals in Premier League and Asian Championship competitions, raising hopes that she could go one better this time. Instead, her campaign ended without a medal.
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Two other Nepali karate players, Min Bahadur Tamang and Rakesh Manandhar, also reached the semifinals on Sunday. Both lost their subsequent bronze medal bouts.
Min Bahadur, competing in the men’s under-60 kg kumite, beat Hong Kong’s Him Chau 4–1 in the round of 16 and Tajikistan’s Mirzajoda Muhammad 2–0 in the quarterfinals. He was the first Nepali karate player to win a bout at these Games. His run ended with a 10–1 semifinal defeat to Kuwait’s Sahab Abdullah, followed by a 2–0 loss to Saudi Arabia’s Al Basir B Saud Abdulaziz in the bronze medal contest.
Rakesh received a first-round bye in the men’s under 55kg kumite, then defeated Thailand’s Inglory Nathakrit 9–0 to reach the last four. Uzbekistan’s Khalimov Khumoyunmirzo beat him 7–0 in the semifinal. Rakesh then lost 2–0 to Malaysia’s Kaliyana Sundaram in the bronze medal bout.
Nepal’s fourth karate entrant on Sunday, Sanumaya Thing, went out in the opening round of the women’s individual kata. All five judges awarded the contest to South Korea’s Choi Han, who won 5–0.
Coach Kushal Shrestha said the three semifinalists had fought hard through their final bouts but acknowledged that the team had fallen short where it mattered.
“All three of our athletes played well. Reaching the final fight for a medal does not mean they played badly,” he said. “They worked hard until the last second, whether they won or lost. Sometimes luck is not on your side. But the result matters, and we fell short. I want to apologise to everyone.”
Four Nepali karate players competed on Sunday, with three coming within one victory of bronze. Erika’s defeat was especially painful for a team that had counted on its previous silver medallist to bring home another Asian Games medal.
