Karateka Panta wins silver in World C’ship

Nepal’s Digambar Prasad Panta (right) with fellow karatekas after the ninth Shito-Ryu Karate World Championship in Tokyo.

Kathmandu, March 17

Digambar Prasad Panta won silver medal in the ninth Shito-Ryu Karate World Championship in Tokyo, Japan today.

Panta entered the record books becoming the first Nepali karateka to win individual silver medal. He faced a 5-0 defeat against Tashim Adil of Kazakhstan in the final of the men’s above-84kg weight category.

Panta was assured of at least World Championship silver medal after he advanced to the final on Friday. He had defeated a player from Venezuela 8-0 in the quarter-finals before edging past Mexican opponent 1-0 in the semi-final bout.

Also, Bijay Shrestha won bronze medal in the men’s below-60kg weight category. He defeated Coulibaly Abdoulay of Ivory Coast 7-0 in the third-place match. On Friday, Shrestha had defeated a player from China in the first round before beating Hong Kong karateka in quarter-finals. Shrestha had faced a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Kazakhstan in semis.

Nepal had previously won bronze medal in the World hampionship but that was in eam event in the third edition, lso in Japan.

In 67kg weight category, Anish ama faced a 5-3 defeat against hinese player. In individual ata, Parshuram Bastola defeatd American opponent 5-0 beore facing a 4-1 loss against exico, while Ganesh Bahadur hing lost 5-0 against Japan afer making it to the second ound with a 5-0 victory over US layer.

A total of five karatekas and wo officials took part in the vent from Nepal. The 10th outh Asian Games gold medalist Kushal Shrestha accompaied the players to Japan as oach, while Nepal Shito-Ryu arate Association President awa Lama was the delegate rom Nepal. Around 1,200 playrs from 39 countries participated in the championship.