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Kathmandu Sunday April 22, 2001 Baishakh 09, 2058.
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Japan dominate cross country
By Purushottam Kattel
KATHMANDU, April 21 - Japan continued its
dominance in Asian Cross Country by winning most of the events in the 6th Asian Cross
Country Championship 2001 held at Gokarna Forest Golf Course, organized by Nepal Olympic
Committee today.
Yasuyo Iwamoto of Japan finished first by
running the 6 KM in 21:17 minutes from the womens senior category. Hisae Yoshimatsu and
Rika Nakamura, also of Japan, came second and third by finishing in 21:27 and 21:53
minutes respectively. In the womens junior race of 4 KM Japan’s Mika Okunaga 13:52,
Rina Fujioka 14:01 and Yosuko Owatari 14:14 minutes came first, second and third
respectively. In the men’s senior race category of 12 KM Iran’s Jafaar Babakhani
upset Japan’s Mokoto Otsu by 16 seconds who finished on 38:32 minutes and was placed
first. Anuradha Indrajith Cooray of Sri Lanka came third completing his task in 39:13
minutes. Nepal’s Narayan Chand was placed 9th out of 37 participants finishing in
39:46 seconds. Minister of Education and Sports, Omkar Shrestha inaugurated the function
where State Minister of Education and Sports Dipendra Badu witnessed the match. 14
countries, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Kazakhstan,
Malaysia, Oman, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia including Nepal participated in the one-day
tournament.
Many foreign experts and sports lovers
appreciated the organizer’s selection of the venue but ended up with a series of
complaints like poor advertisement, lack of audience participation, vulnerable management
and the organizer’s lack of experience in coping with international level
competition. Nepali prospects were failed to give an impressive performance as expected. A
few Nepali players, on condition of anonymity, accused Rukma Shumser JBR, the president of
the Nepal Olympic Committee for discriminating against them ( since the Nepali contingent
stayed at Hotel Bangla while the foreign players were set up at Soaltee Crown Plaza ) and
rejecting to offer training and participating allowances by saying, "You should
better select to go abroad or look for business to earn money". In defense, Rukma
Shumser, when asked about the reliability of the accusation said, "It is beyond the
morals of any player to ask for compensation since the players themselves selected to stay
out side the Soaltee Hotel and they have been provided each with kit bags with whatever is
available in the market for all the players" as he was also accused for not providing
the original kits donated by Adidas Company. Further he informed, Adidas Company only
donated financial support by which they bought kits from the local market which lacks
advanced materials. The Nepali players further accused the management of not allowing them
to practice on the venue. Even being more aggressive, one Nepali player lamented, "We
had to bear uncooked rice on the night before the competition which caused dysentery to a
few of our colleagues therefore how can they expect good performances from us," when
asked about their poor performance on the track.
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