Five in race for Player of the Year award

KATHMANDU, JUN 24 -

Paras Khadka, Jagjit Shrestha, Jharana Gurung, Keshari Chaudhary and Sirish Gurung are in the run for this year’s Pulsar Popular Player of the Year category. PoY is the only category in the annual Pulsar Sports Award event, where the winner will be chosen by the fans voting via sms and social networking site facebook.com.

The nominees are from different background and sports and the success achieved by them ranges from international cricket to domestic pool. It seems an effort to make the category inclusive.

Nepal cricket team captain Khadka has gained a huge popularity after he led his side to a historic World Cricket League Division III title. Khadka was also instrumental in guiding the team to the ACC Trophy. Besides that, Nepal’s promotion to Division II, ACC Trophy triumph in Malaysia and taking Nepal to the final of ACC Twenty20 cricket made him, arguably, the biggest sports star of the nation.

“Getting nominated in this category is itself an award,” said Khadka, who had stroked 106 runs off 77 balls against Kuwait in the ACC Trophy.

Jagjit Shrestha’s is one of the most uttered names by football fans in the country. The midfielder has found a niche for himself in the national team for the last two years. “My presence among the nominees at a time when the national team have not been able to achieve success has brought some excitement to Nepali football,” said Shrestha.

Jharana Gurung ended Nepal’s 18-year medal drought in wushu after bagging a bronze medal in the Eight Asian Wushu Championship in Vietnam. Jharana who hails from Pokhara said, “My nomination has got the entire city of Pokhara excited.”

Keshari Chaudhary, dubbed as the record girl of athletics, holds four national records in high jump, long jump, triple jump and 100m hurdles under her name. Chaudhary, who started grabbing attention since school-level tournament, has been breaking records for the last five years on a regular basis. Last year, she set records in all three events she had participated in.

The Nepal Police player is also a former cricketer but she opted for athletics.

Teen sensation Sirish Gurung’s list of gold medals and records in swimming are pretty long. He hogged the limelight in the Ninth Asian Swimming Championship, breaking four national records in the 1,500m freestyle with the timing of 19 minutes 48.16 seconds.

The 15-year-old prodigy had broken the national record set by Jay Prakash Gurung in 1984. He also broke the Ongden Lama’s decade-long record in the individual medley and 200m butterfly in the second NSA Cup.