Jul 12, Kathmandu: The National Sports Council (NSC) on Monday awarded player incentives to 13 players in six different sports. A total of 1 million 50 thousand cash prizes were given to 13 players including 4 in Para-Taekwondo, 1-1 in Badminton and Volleyball, 3 in Boxing, and 2-2 in Athletics and Triathlon.

Mercury Olympian Taleswa Govardhan of Taekwondo and Prince Dahal of Badminton received the same cash prize of Rs 150,000. Palesha, who made history by winning two bouts at the Tokyo Paralympics, won gold at the Asian Youth Para Games. Prince, currently ranked seventh in the world junior rankings, was in the top rankings a few months ago.

Boxing’s Narika Rai, Swastika Thiruva and Chiring Sherpa, and Para Taekwondo’s Sirjana Ghising got Rs 1 lakh each. All three boxers won bronze medals at the Asian Youth and Junior Boxing Championships in the UAE. Sirjana had given the silver to Nepal in the World President’s Cup Championship held in Iran.

Rajpura Pachai and Pushpa Bhandari of Athletics, Soni Gurung and Basanta Tharu of Triathlon, Ranjana Dhami and Vishal Garbuja of Para-Taekwondo and Aruna Shahi of Volleyball received cash prizes of Rs 50,000 each. Rajpura won silver in the South Asian Cross Country in India and Pushpa won silver in the Dhaka Marathon. Soni and Basanta won bronze medals in the ninth South Asian Triathlon in Pokhara.

Ranjana won the bronze medal in the Asian Games and Vishal won the bronze medal in the South Asian Games. Aruna is the captain of the team that won gold in the Asian Central Zone Women’s Volleyball. He was presented the award by Youth and Sports Minister Maheshwar Jung Gahatraj, Rakhep Vice President Shiva Koirala, NSC Member-Secretary Tankalal Ghising, Program Coordinator and Rakhep Member Chandra Badna Rai.