By a Staff Reporter
Kathmandu – The fifth edition of the Dhana Laxmi Memorial National Squash Tournament, organized by the Nepal Squash Rackets Association (NSRA), is set to commence next week.
The week-long tournament will begin on 6th August and run until 12th August, at the NSRA premises, as announced during a press conference in the capital on Thursday.
Continuing its valuable support, the Dhana Laxmi Foundation will once again act as the title sponsor for this edition, as it has been doing since the inception of the tournament. The event is organized in loving memory of NSRA’s Immediate Past President (IPP), Kishore Maharjan’s late mother, Dhana Laxmi Maharjan.
Over 100 players are expected to participate in the tournament, with 15 officials officiating the matches.
The tournament is divided into five categories: Open Women’s/Men’s, Men’s U19, Master Open (Male over 50), and Set Championship.
An exciting development for this year’s edition is that the organizers will be awarding the same prize money to both the men’s and women’s winners. In the Open Men’s and Women’s categories, the top three winners will receive NRs. 20,000, NRs. 15,000, and NRs. 5,000, respectively. Similarly, in the Men’s U19 category, the top three players will be rewarded with NRs. 11,000, NRs. 6,000, and NRs. 3,000, respectively.
In the men’s and women’s open categories, the reigning champions are national players Arhant Keshar Singh and Krishna Thapa Magar. Arhant, a four-time winner, successfully defended his title in the previous edition by defeating his fellow national team member Amrit Thapa Magar. Similarly, in the women’s open category, Krishna outplayed Bipana Blon to clinch the championship title. It is noteworthy that Arhant has been unbeatable in all previous editions of the championship.
