The National Sports Council (NSC) presented the second installment of the surprise package to the 40 gold medallists of the 8th South Asian Federation Games held in Kathmandu in 1999.

Minister for Education and Sports Devi Prasad Ojha handed over the package to the Nepali gold medallist at a function organized Wednesday at the Nepal Sports Council. Former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba had presented the first installment of the awards to the gold medallists.

He had given one hundred thousand rupees each to the players of the team events and one hundred fifty thousand rupees to the gold medallists participating in individual events. Ex-Prime Minister Krishna Prasad Bhattarai had announced the surprise package on the eve of the 8th SAF games.

Bhattarai had initially announced that the government would honour the victorious athletes by providing land but later the athletes were given cash prize.

Nepal won a total of 31 gold medals (taekwondo 14, karate 14, boxing 2, swimming 1 and came out second in the overall medal table. nepalnews.com am Nov 28