Sangina Vaidya Appointed Director of Training and Development at National Sports Council

Olympian taekwondo athlete Sangina Vaidya has been appointed as the Director of the Training and Development Department at the National Sports Council. With this appointment, Sangina becomes the first female director in the Council’s six-decade history. The Council officially handed her the appointment letter on Thursday.

Sangina Vaidya is the first Nepali athlete to have qualified beyond the selection phase to participate in the Olympics. She cleared the qualifying rounds to compete in the 2004 Olympics held in Greece. Additionally, she is the first athlete from Nepal to win a gold medal at the Asian Games, having secured gold at the 1996 Asian Taekwondo Championships.

She also won two gold medals in the South Asian Games (SAF) held in Kathmandu in 1999 and in Pakistan in 2004. Currently, she serves as a senior taekwondo coach at the National Sports Council. Earlier, under Secretary Member Tank Lal Ghising, there were plans to appoint her as the head of the Training and Development Department in 2024 B.S. However, a controversy arose when then Youth and Sports Minister Tej Lal Chaudhary appointed karate coach Shobhit Prasain as director at the last moment. Due to this dispute, Sangina resigned from her position as Deputy Director of the Training and Development Department.

With the new government led by the National Independent Party and Sports Minister Sasmit Pokharel now in office, Sangina has finally been selected as the department’s Director.