President Bidhya Devi Bhandari bids farewell to players for 12th South Asian Games
President Bhandari bids farewell to players
February 1
President Bidhya Devi Bhandari extended her best wishes to the national players participating in the 12th South Asian Games (SAG) during a farewell function organized by the National Sports Council in Tripureshwar on Monday.
During the occasion, President Bhandari handed over the national flag to Minister for Youth and Sports Satya Narayan Mandal, who will lead the 522-member Nepali team for the games scheduled to be held in Guwahati and Shillong of neighboring India from February 5 to 16.
The Nepali team that includes 384 players will participate in all 23 events during the regional sporting extravaganza. The team is leaving for India on Tuesday.
While addressing the players, President Bhandari urged them to promote the country’s identity in the international arena through the medium of sports.
“Nepalese will take pride on your success in the foreign land,” she said to the players.
Stating that sports was the medium to promote fraternity in the world, President Bhandari further appealed to the players to play the role of catalyst for unity among the South Asian countries during the SAG.
Meanwhile, NSC Member Secretary Keshav Kumar Bista believed that Nepal would repeat the success in the SAG just like the recent successes in football and cricket.
Olympian shooter Sneha Rajya Laxmi Rana (London Olympics, 2012) will be the flag bearer of Nepal during the march past in the opening ceremony.
Nepal will be hosting the next edition of the regional sporting extravaganza, the 13th South Asian Games, in accordance to the alphabetical order mentioned in the statute of the South Asian Olympic Council.
The upcoming edition will be the third time Nepal will be hosting the South Asian Games since organizing the inaugural games in 1984 AD followed by the 8th SAG in 1999 AD.
