Kathmandu - With the promotion and success of the 19th Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China from September 23 to October 8, 2023, the "Asian Games Hangzhou Fun Run 2023" of Nepal was completed at the Patan Durbar Square, a heritage with cultural significance, on Friday, 17th Feb.
Lalitpur Mayor Mr. Chiri Babu Maharjan, Ambassador of China to Nepal His Excellency Chen Song, President of Nepal Olympic Committee Honorable Jeevan Ram Shrestha, Secretary General of Nepal Olympic Committee Mr. Nilendraraj Shrestha, Media Director of Olympic Council of Asia Mr. Juan Zhou, and other officials, as well as athletes of various sports made a thick presence in the program.
The race program started with the firing of the starting gun by Lalitpur Mayor Maharjan. Hundreds of people who took part in the race wore Hangzhou Asian Games Fun Run printed t-shirts and ran from Patan Durbar Square to Patan Durbar Square via Ga Baham, Pulchok, Krishna Galli, Patan Door, Ashok Hall, Bhimsen Mandir covering 3.5 km in total.
Run for Fun is organized by Nepal Olympic Committee in collaboration with Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). Among all the countries participating in the Asian Games, Fun Run has been organized in Cambodia, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and Qatar. Along with the Nepal Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Youth and Sports as well as officials of the National Sports Council, players and coaches of related sports participating in the Asian Games participated in the race.
"Participation of potential athletes and sports personalities, various social personalities, Olympic Council of Asia delegation and other athletes will help to create positive awareness of the project among the general public and it will also help in the promotion of the 19th Asian Games," said Jeevanram Shrestha, President of the Nepal Olympic Committee.
Roshan Shrestha General secretary of Nepal volleyball Association congratulates and is thankful to organizers for this enthusiastic program. He adds" this is a successful program in order to let more and more people know and be informed about it. Most of the people of Nepal and Asian continent, know about the Hangzhou Asia tournaments. This is a great start."
National volleyball player Usha Bhandari, who was nominated for the 2078 People's Choice Award, also participated in the fun run program. "The feeling of running with national athletes and locals from all regions is amazing and something I have never experienced before," she said.
Dolma lama, a secretary of Sports and environment commission, leads 26 students including 5 staffs of Brihaspati bidhya sadan school for them to participate in today's Fun Run program.
Every sports department of Nepal will now prepare number of athletes, national teams to represent Nepal in upcoming 19th South Asian Game.
Hangzhou Asian Games will feature 56 competition venues and 31 training venues, with the Asian Games village and the five sub- villages already in place and ready for use. A total of 40 sports, 61 disciplines and 483 events have been finalized for the games.
