Nepal Mountain
Bike Race KATHMANDU, Sept 11 (PR) - Nepal Mountain Bike Tours is organizing
Nepal Mountain Bike Race 2006 on 18th November, race director Ranjan Rajbhandari
confirmed on Monday. The race will take place at newly developed mountain
biking route that starts from Goldhunga and goes via Mudkhu Bhanjyang,
Cho Gaun, Dharmasthali, Ghattekhola, Chimur Gaun, Jhor, Sapantirtha, Tokha
and concludes at Budhanilakantha. According to the organizers, the race
is aimed at promoting and developing Nepal as an ideal adventure sports
destination. The tournament will feature events like men's elite, men's
junior, ladies' open, weekend warriors, school race, corporate race and
media race. Some 150 national and international cyclists are expected
to participate in the 35km race.
Watersports in Sundarijal!
by Anil Adhikari ,Sr.reporter
11-08-006
"love the river,stay by it ,learn from it",Hermann
Hesse.
Nepal river conservation corporation, are highy impressed by the above
saying of poet Hermann Hesse.They have been organinsing lot of watersports
festival in different gorgeous venue of Nepal.
It has been organising Bagmati River Festival from june 5.The two- months
long festival is resuming again from tommorrow in Sundarijal after a break
in the middle.This time they are back with different interesting events
like media challenge,school challenge,public river race,kayak down river
race etc. to make the sports popular in Nepal.
Corporate house yacht racing is scheduled for August 12, Saturday in Sundarijal.According
to the co-ordinator; Ranjan Raj Bhandari "River festival are the
sports of 21st century unlike Gaijatra and Ghode jatra" He further
stated that such kind of sports have good future in a rich water resources
country, like nepal .The festival will conclude on the 20th August Thapathali.
Merosports
3rd Thuraya TAAN Mountain Bike Championship
Result(Race
Result)
On the occasion of World Environment Day (5th June, 2006),
3rd Thuraya TAAN Mountain bike Championship race was held, which started
from Old Thimi and ended at Kashi Bhanjyang, a 22-km course. The first
8 kms of the race was black-topped pitch road, while the remaining portion
of the race course was off-road jeeptrack. The starting point was situated
1300 m above sea level and the ending point was 1900 m.
Open
First – Dipendra Bajracharya 00.59.33
Second – Surenda Rai 00.59.45
Third – Kaji Sherpa 01.00.41
Master
First – Sonam Gurung 1.09.40
Second – Stephen (S. Africa) 1.16.06
Third – Robert Brownlee (USA) 1.18.14
Women
First – Nirjala Tamrakar 1.15.45
Junior
First – Ajay Pandit Chhetri 1.04.35
Second – Abraham Rai 1.13.45
Third – Purna Bahadur Shrestha 1.15.02
Total Participants 107
Foreigners 10
- USA, Fijian, Dutch, French
Women 2
Junior 18
Master 6
Open 81
Belgian
world travellers arrive in Nepal
The Belgian sisters, Nicole and Ingrid, also called as 'crazy twins,'
arrived Kathmandu last week over land from India as part of their ambitious
programme to visit 55 countries around the world over the span of five
Nepal is the 19th country in Asia they are visiting. Nicole and Ingrid
plan to complete their nearly 100,000 km journey in the Kayak, bicycle,
roller blades and horses. They said they are planning to try balloon and
sledge as well.The state-run The Rising Nepal daily quoted the Belgian
sisters as saying
that newspapers in Belgium mostly report negatively on Nepal's latest
situation. "We are surprised to see the hospitality of Nepalis that
we received during our travel to Kathmandu from Kakarvitta in the eastern
border,"
"The main purpose of our trip is to promote cycling and trekking,"
Nicole and Ingrid said during a programme organised by the Nepal Tourism
Board in their honour in Lalitpur on March 31, 2006.They will travel on
foot and on mountain bike in Nepal on their way to Lhasa of People's Republic
of China.
During their two months stay in Nepal, the duo also have plans to visit
the Everest base camp.
Their 'Journey through the world' had begun on 17 April 2004
3RD
KATHMANDU ADVENTURE RALLY Nepal, the land of Himalayas, is best suited
for the adventure activities. The change in the altitudes and structure
of the terrain at very short distance, being its characteristics, it has
been a destination for adventure sports activities. Various sports competitions
have been organized in the past. In all of these events, the number of
local as well as international participants seemed to bequite encouraging.
In order to attract the interest groups/individuals
from local, regional and international level towards adventure sports,
the Nepal Cycling Club (NCC) has proposed to organize the 2nd Kathmandu
Adventure Rally 2005 on 25th March 2006, Saturday.
This proposed Rally is one its own kind.
We are introducing this for the second time in Nepal. The rally uses one
of the recent methods of using the map with scale and directions. The
map in this rally will have various segments, each segment having some
change in the direction of the racecourse. The map uses the line segment
drawings. The participants have to read the map by themselves. The racecourse
will not be disclosed to the participants of the race. However, the organizers
will provide the information about the starting and finishing point of
the race beforehand.
The pilot race – 1st Kathmandu Adventure Rally had already been
organized on 26th March 2005 at Nepal Tourism Board (NTB)- Budhanilkantha
area - Thamel. The new system was of great success and was of interest
to local as well as foreign bikers.
Cyclists smell
a rat in NMBA selection
POST REPORT
KATHMANDU, Aug 3 - A group of Nepali national cyclists has demanded a
fresh cycling selection for the upcoming South Asian Games alleging the
previous selection as 'bias.'
After the National Sports Council (NSC) okayed Nepal's participation in
cycling, Nepal Mountain Bike Association (NMBA) called for open selection
as only two cyclists turned out for selection in both the men's and women's
categories.
"There are 150 professional cyclists in Nepal and
it is unbelievable that all of them did not want to join the open selection,"
ace cyclist Suresh Dulal said. "They (NMBA) are simply cheating the
athletes and it's intolerable," he added at a press conference on
Thursday.
In the so-called selection tournament, Nirjala Tamrakar
and Sanjeev Thapa, who are both boarding the flight for Colombo, were
the only bikers to show up in their respective categories. "We don't
have problems with Nirjala as she is invited by the Sri Lankan Biking
Association to make up the quorum of women cyclists but we can't allow
a bad cyclist to represent Nepal in the mega event," Dulal, the leader
of seven rebel cyclists, added.
According to the cyclists, Thapa is a worker in NMBA
President Chhimi Gurung's company Downhill Dusk. Biker Dulal also accused
NMBA of sending him to Bangkok for high-level training and organizing
the mock selection tournament simultaneously in his absence. "The
NMBA sent coach Ranjan Rajbhandari and me to Bangkok but we ourselves
bore the whole expenses of the tour," he added.
In his series of complaints against NMBA, Dulal hit out
at Gurung for providing false facts to National Sports Council (NSC).
"They convinced NSC by showing the positioning of a November championship
where Thapa was adjudged second. What we want is a fresh selection or
cancellation because there are a handful of other youngsters better than
Thapa," he said. "I am not advocating myself but the best should
represent Nepal."
Likewise, youth champion Ajay Pandit Chhetri also claimed
that his timing was better than Thapa in the Asian Biking Championship
held in December last year where he finished 17th in youth race.
However, president Chhimi Gurung confirmed that the alleged
two members selection was actually time trial. "We conducted selection
tournament two months earlier and those who are against Sanjeev now were
among the selectors then. There is no foul play at all."
Nepal Cycling Association
(NCA), in collaboration with International Cycling Union and Asian Cycling
Confederation, is organising 14th Asian Mountain Bike Championship in Nepal
from November 6 to 10, 2008.
Around 200 contestants from 40 different countries will take part in the
event that is being organised for the first time in Nepal, the organisers
said at a press conference organised in Kathmandu on May 22, 2008.
'Adventure events like cycling will help bring in more visitors to the country.
The event will also help promote Nepal among the adventure enthusiasts,'
Shrestha added. Similarly, secretary at the Ministry of Education and Sports
said that mountain tourism plays a pivotal role in Nepal's tourism industry.
'The government is committed to promote this sector,' he added. Similarly,
president of Nepal Olympic Committee Mr. Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan said that
Nepal is an ideal venue to host competitions like mountain biking.
The championship will have two events—downhill and cross country—under
elite men and women categories. There will be three laps of 11 km each for
elite men category and two laps of 11 km each for women.
