By Pramod Joshi

Kathmandu, Dec. 3: Nepalese players, especially the players of the martial arts events, displayed an impressive performance on Monday as they fetched 15 gold medals for the country in the ongoing 13th South Asian Games on Monday.
This is the first time in the history of SAG that host Nepal won 15 gold medals in a single day.
Out of the 15 gold medals, 14 were won in taekwondo and karate. The taekwondo players grabbed seven gold medals and taekwondo players claimed as many gold medals.
Trialthon’s Soni Gurung won the first gold medal of the day for the host. She won maiden triathlon gold medal for the country beating closely her India rival in Pokhara.
Taekwondo player Ayesha Shakya, a mother of two sons, won two gold medals in taekwondo’s poomsae events. She won her individual gold medal in poomsae’s above 29-year age category and later teamed up with Sanjiv Kumar Ojha to claim second gold medal in the poomsae-double event.
Parbati Gurung, Sina Maden, Kamal Shrestha also won individual gold medal in taekwondo. In the team poomsae’s 17 to 23 years age, the Nepalese women comprising of Nisha Darnal, Swastika Tamang, Sanjila Timilsena, won two gold medals making the total haul in taekwondo seven gold medals. Nita Gurung, Prashansa Chhetri and Sushila Rai won another team gold in poomsae’s 23 to 29 year age category.
Meanwhile, karate’s Mande Kaji Shrestha too claimed two gold medals. He won his individual gold medal in kata event and them teamed up with other two fellows to win the team kata gold.
Karate fetched a total of seven gold medals on a day when Nepal dominated the game.
Apart from Mande Kaji, Biplav Shrestha also bagged two gold medals in karate after winning the final bout in above-84 and above-85kg weight categories in men’s kumite.
Anu Adhikari won gold medal in women’s 50kg kumite.
Laxman Tamang also added another gold in men’s single kumite in the senior 55 kg weight category. Kusum Khadka won the gold medal in women’s U-45 kg weight category. Khadka overcame Maunjara Borna of Bangladesh by 3-2 in final.
Likewise, Nirmala Tamang, Saru Karki and Sangita Magar teamed up for Nepal to win gold medal in women’s team kata.