Inadequate training, improper management behind failure: Olympians

KATHMANDU, Nov 22: Taekwondo has the glory of fetching highest number of medals for Nepal in the Asian Games. Taekwondo is the only game to fetch the one and only Asian Games silver medal till date. Nepali sports fraternity had high hopes from taekwondo at the ongoing 16th Asian Games too.

However, the game failed to deliver this time and all of the 12 Nepali taekwondo players are returning home empty handed from Guangzhou.

The Guangzhou saga upset the olympians and taekwondo aces Deepak Bista and Sangina Baidya, but it is the sports authorities of the country that they are really frustrated at.

"The country´s longing for medals ends abruptly after the end of every tournament. Authorities do not attempt to sort out the reasons behind the failures and solve them. Without proper response from the authorities, you cannot hope players to give better results than this," said Bista.

According to Bista, quarrel between National Sports Council (NSC) and Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC), uncertainty of participation because of disputes, budget crunch during the training period, lack of overseas training and training without proper gears are some of the reasons behind taekwondo´s flop show in Gaungzhou.

"The governing body of taekwodo has introduced electronic chest guard and electronic socks for athletes for the first time in the Asian Games. We neither made those gears available to the players here nor did we send them overseas for training, where those gears were available. If we can´t provide even a set of proper gears, how can we expect medals from them?" questioned Bista, who pulled out of the Guangzhou Asiad because of injury.

Bista said that the sports authorities ignore their jobs as they get busy quarreling.

"There should be a probe into every failure to find out reasons and to hold the responsible authorities accountable," argued the taekwondo ace, who won two consecutive bronze medals in the Asiad.

Meanwhile, Baidya also holds Bista´s views on the Guangzhou disaster. "There were players from new generation who did not get proper training," said Baidya. "They didn´t go overseas for training and could not get skilled sparring partners."

"We should not overlook failures. We must reflect at the reasons, if we don´t want to fail in future," said Baidya.

Both taekwondo aces hinted at inexperience and lack of concentration of the players at deciding moments as other reasons behind the failure. "The inexperience and lack of concentration of players, however, is the result of inadequate training," Bista and Baidya said in the same tone.

Asiad qualified Nepali taekwondo players were compelled to return from Korea after NSC failed to assure them of the budget necessary for overseas training.

Nepal had won four bronze medals in Asiad Taekwondo in 1986. After the 1986 Seoul Asiad, Nepal had never returned home without a medal in taekwondo except from the Beijing Asiad in 1990. In the last two editions, taekwondo has been the only game that fetched medals for Nepal.

The only silver medal Nepal has won in the Asian sports extravaganza till date has been by Sabita Rajbhandari, in the Bangkok Asiad of 1998.

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