By Nick Butler

Surendra Bahadur Basnyat (centre) has been re-elected as the President of the Nepal Paralympic Committee ©NPCNepalSurendra Bahadur Basnyat has been re-elected President of the Nepal Paralympic Committee (NPC) during a General Assembly in Kathmandu.


The official has already played an integral role of the growth of the organisation in recent years, and it is hoped that he can galvanise the NPC to qualify more athletes for Rio 2016.

He will continue to work alongside Pashupati Parajull, re-elected as secretary general.

More than 500 individuals - consisting of Paralympic athletes, coaches, leaders, guests, partner organisations, journalists and Government officials - participated at the General Assembly, with special guests including the Minister of Youth and Sport, Purushttom Paudel, and Nepal Olympic Committee President, Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan.

A decision was also taken to amend the existing constitution of the NPC, with a five-member Drafting Committee formed to begin this process. 

The NPC was set up, initially as the National Para Sports Association, in 2000 to work generally for improving sporting opportunities for the disabled in the Asian country.

Four years later, the Association was recognised by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and shortly after at Athens 2004, F12 shot putter Nirmala Gyawali became Nepal's first ever Paralympian.

Further athletes participated at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, where sprinters Bikram Rama and Maiya Bishunkhe each competed in the heats of the 100 and 200 metres, in the men's T11 and women's T46 categories respectively. 

The teams participation in London was somewhat overshadowed by the death of Man Bahadur Lopchan, a senior office driver at the NPC, who died in London on September 18, following a suicide attempt a week earlier at the Games where he tried to hang himself with a rope.

The NPC are now focused on improving their sporting fortunes, with the next target the Asian Para Games in Incheon from October 18 to 24.

They are seeking "ambitious participation", which will mean a rise on the seven athletes who competed in four sports at the inaugural Asian Para Games in Guangzhou in 2010. 

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