The mountains make their inhabitants natural sportspersons. But the political instability in the small mountain republic of Nepal has meant that the nation has never been able to move up the sporting ladder, even in the region. Add to that a big brother-like attitude on the part of countries like India (Nepal was apparently sent an invitation only three weeks before the Asian championship). ‘‘Write about us, because everyone in our country is too scared to write. No one is strong enough to take a stance,’’ says a member of the small contingent at the 2nd Asian Women’s World Championships in Hisar. A six- member team from Nepal participated in the Asian championship - Soni Shrestha, Kiran Singh, Sanju Lama, Anuradha Lama, Parvati Giri and Tulasa Thapa are all students - most of them are studying in school and some in colleges. Women’s boxing in Nepal, incidentally, started well before it took off here in India. Their coach Bijoy Singh Dangol was one of the first person to realise the potential in a nation where girls were naturally athletic. He says, ‘‘We had read in magazines and watched on television that women’s boxing was picking up in the US and Europe.’’ In 1996, Patrick Harrowin, an amateur British boxer, was in Nepal as a tourist and the local enthusiasts requested her to hold a demonstration. ‘‘It attracted a lot of attention and soon a lot of girls started taking part. That’s how we started,’’ says Dangol. But boxer Soni Shrestha said there are hardly any support for women boxing in Nepal. ‘‘We were improving but entirely on our own. Political tension and the various government changes hampered our training after 2000-2001. We train with minimal equipment. We haven’t had our National Games in many years and this was our first international meet,’’ she pointed out. The Nepalese team were not allowed to participate at the 2001 Asian championships in Bangkok but a new boxing association was formed after a new party came to power. ‘‘We hope that things will improve now,’’ said Shrestha. However, NK Thapa, a member of the Nepal Boxing Association and international referee said sports in general was not being encouraged in Nepal. Thapa said, ‘‘Why just boxing, no sport in Nepal is getting support because the government spends all its money on defence.’’ Dangol said the sport was suffering due to neglect at home and the double-standard of the neighbouring countries. ‘‘Our performance has been terrible here and we know it, but do you know that because of the political situation in Nepal, none of these girls have trained in the last two years? And the organisers here told us about this tournament only three weeks back. If we knew about the tournament, we would have got our boxers together and trained.’’ Though none of them could reach the finals, the coach was happy with the exposure. Dangol said, ‘‘We are happy that they could take part in at least one international tournament.’’
