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| Records holder Keshari Chaudhary |
Keshari Chaudhary last week
broke two national records in Athletics. Along with her previous record in the High Jump, she now also holds the womens records for the Triple Jump and Long Jump.
Her national records in any of those three disciplines would not be even good enough to qualify her for the Olympics. But does it really matter? She is the best Nepali at what she does and that's a great achievement in its own right.
(FYI - She's also a national level cricket player, thus arguably making her Nepal's top sportsman.)
I really wish Keshari's records garnered more fanfare. I for one would have loved to have been at the stadium to witness them. She and not the likes of the football team that won a meaningless international friendly tournament (i.e. Prime Ministers Cup) against weak opponents should be having
audiences with our country's leaders.
All this leads me to my next point. The one phrase that really irks me when reading Nepali newspapers and forums is when sports journalists/fans and even sports officials talk about a certain sport "not having scope". If organized and developed properly, every sport except for maybe surfing (sorry but there are no beaches in Nepal) has scope. Just because we are unlikely to compete well at the international level does not mean we cannot have well run and exciting competitions domestically. Football and golf are the classic examples. We lag quite far behind other nations in those two sports but have immensely popular and well covered football and golf competitions.
In my eyes the sports that have the most scope in Nepal are actually ones we might perennially struggle in internationally because of our diminutive stature - such as basketball and volleyball. Due to our geography and the lack of parks and fields in major cities, basketball and volleyball are two sports that are well suited for the hilly regions and our schools and colleges which are all devoid of open spaces. As an example, basketball is a religion in the Philippines, but they do not have a single player in the NBA and their national team stinks, even at the Asian level! We ourselves should look to develop sports like basketball and not worry if a Nepali will ever be able dunk the ball like
Blake Griffin.
Let's send the phrase "not having scope" to Arya Ghat and get excited about all domestic competitions and athletic achievements - like that of Keshari's, whether they are internationally significant or not. If it happens in Nepal, it's significant to us!
(Mea Culpa: I've not always held this sentiment - as you may have noticed if you read my Karishma Karki article a long time back, but I guess as we grow older we get wiser)
