Farewell ceremony for Nepali national rafting team held in Pokhara

Nepali rafting team for IRF International Rafting Championship to be held in Australia pose for a group picture with Nepali national flag. Picture: Recentfusion.com

By Rup Narayan Dhakal : Pokhara—Tourism entrepreneurs from Pokhara have organized a formal ceremony to farewell a group of Nepali rafters who are going to take part in International Rafting Championship to be held from May 16 to 19, 2019 at Tully River in Queensland of Australia.

Gandaki Province assembly member Rajib Pahari including others saw off the team of 8 rafters namely- team captain Suraj Gurung, Sunil Gurung, Shakti Kumar Gurung, Dipesh Gurung, Miya Ravil, Padam Bahadur Gurung, Sabin Gurung including Nepal Association of Rafting Agencies (NARA) Chairman and IRF instructor Nim Bahadur Magar who is the coach of that team.  

Addressing the ceremony, coach Magar said that he is hopeful that his team will bag one of the medals in the championship. “It won’t be our defeat even if we secure within 10th position.’ Magar added. He however expressed his unhappiness that Nepali team had got no economic support from the Nepal Government, tourism ministry, Nepal Tourism Board including province government.

According to Magar, the nonresident Nepalis from Australia have vowed some economic support to Nepali team and started to collect such money from online. Some Rs 3.4 expenses has been estimated for the whole travel and accommodation package of the Nepali rafters’ team.

According to IRF web portal, the championship will be played basing on four different categories- Sprint, Head-to-Head (H2H), Slalom and Downriver. The Nepali team will leave for Australia on May 7 and the close camp is to be stared from May 13.

Meanwhile, Pokhara Toruism Council chairman Chirinjibi Pokhrel and TAAN WRA Pokhara IPP Deepak Raj Adhikari also saw off Nepali team offering Khadas, wishing their success in the championship to be organized by International Rafting Federation.

TAAN WRA Pokhara former chairman Dambar Bahadur KC, another former chairman Som Bahadur Thapa, Mt Kailash Resort’s MD Naresh Bahadur Bhattarai including other senior dignitaries were present in the program.

Published on: May 4, 2019 1:59 pm

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