Golden girl Singh bags 12 golds, equals record

Nepalgunj, April 24

Olympian swimmer Gaurika Singh stole the limelight when she claimed 12 gold medals with six national records in the National Swimming Tournament under the eighth National Games here today.

Singh, who participated in 12 events, added four gold medals on the final day to take the tally to 12 gold medals equalling the record set by Karishma Karki in the fifth edition of the National Games held in Kathmandu. While Karki had won 12 gold medals without a single national record, Singh set six new marks.

“I am more than happy as I could win gold medals in all the event I took part in the National Games,” said Singh, the lone Nepali player to win individual medal in the South Asian Games. “I am thankful to the organisers of the Games for managing such a nice facility and I want to dedicate all the medals to my team Tribhuvan Army Club,” added Sing, who won one silver and three bronze medals in the 12th SA Games in Guwahati in 2016. “Now I will focus on the 13th SA Games to be held on my home soil and want to win gold medal for the country,” added the youngest athlete of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Singh, who had won two gold medals each on the first two days before adding four on the third day, won 200m Individual Medley, 200m freestyle, 100m Individual Medley and 4X100m freestyle relay on the final day. She set new national record in 200m IM finishing the race in two minutes and 32 seconds improving her own mark by 0.51 seconds.

Duana Lama came second in 2:36.59 and Tisa Shakya of APF was third in 2:49.87.

Singh broke the national record in 50m freestyle winning the gold medal in 27.59 seconds. Singh, who bettered her previous mark of 27.95 in heats with the timing of 27.81, won gold ahead of fellow TAC swimmer Sofia Shah (28.94) and Tisa Shakya (29.43) of APF.

The Olympian swimmer also set new mark in 100m backstroke. She improved her previous mark of 1:09.30 twice — 1:08.63 in heats and 1:07.72 in finals — to win gold. Singh then teamed up with Sofia Shah, Upaasti Maharjan and Duwana Lama to win gold in 4X100 Freestyle relay. NPC and APF came second and third. NPC, TAC and APF claimed top three positions respectively in men’s section.

Nathan Dorje Sherpa claimed five gold medals in the meet. He added 100m backstroke gold to his tally on the final day with new national record. Sherpa came first with the timing of 1:04.06 shattering the previous mark of 1:11.53 held by Prashant Raj Joshi. He had broken the mark in heats completing the race in 1:07.06.

Alex Shah broke national record in 50m freestyle setting the new mark of 25.06 seconds. He broke the mark of 25.80 seconds held by Olympian Sirish Gurung. Shah had finished in 25.09 in heats. Likewise, Sayed Hamza Shah won the men’s 200m IM gold medal in two minutes and 17.19 seconds.

TAC finished at the top of the standing with 20 gold, 13 silver and five bronze medals, while NPC and NRNA bagged five each golds and APF bagged four. The tournament featured 34 gold medals and three departmental teams claimed 29.