The 1999 South Asian Games (or 8th SAF Games) were held in

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

(for the second time) from 25 September to 4 October 1999. King

Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev ( ne, श्री ५ महाराजाधिराज वीरेन्द्र वीर विक्रम शाह देव ) (28 December 1945 – 1 June 2001) was the tenth Shah Ruler and the King of N ...

declared the games open amidst a grand ceremony. 1069 athletes of the different seven SAARC countries participated in the twelve sports. In the final medal count, India took first position and taking the advantages of host country Nepal amazingly took second position followed by Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Maldives. Out of 523 medals India had the most, with 102 gold, 58 silver and 37 bronze, Nepal then took 31 gold, 10 silver and 24 bronze, Sri Lanka 16 gold 42 silver and 62 bronze, Pakistan 10 gold, 36 silver and 30 bronze, Bangladesh 2 gold, 10 silver and 35 bronze, Bhutan 1 gold, 6 silver and 7 bronze, Maldives 4 bronze. None of the participant countries went back empty hand without having medals. Even Bhutan and Maldives had the benefit of medals.

The games

Sports

There were 12 sports including 2 new sports,

Karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

and

Taekwondo ''Taekwondo'', ''Tae Kwon Do'' or ''Taekwon-Do'' (; ko, 태권도/跆拳道 ) is a Korean form of martial arts involving punching and kicking techniques, with emphasis on head-height kicks, spinning jump kicks, and fast kicking techniques. T ...

. *

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

Boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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Kabaddi Kabaddi is a contact team sport. Played between two teams of seven players, the objective of the game is for a single player on offence, referred to as a "raider", to run into the opposing team's half of the court, touch out as many of their ...

(debut) *

Shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missiles can ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

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Table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

(debut) * Volleyball pictogram

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Weightlifting Weightlifting generally refers to activities in which people lift Weight training#Equipment, weights, often in the form of dumbbells or barbells. People lift various kinds of weights for a variety of different reasons. These may include various t ...

Wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

Medal table

A total of 523 medals comprising 162 Gold medals, 162 Silver medals and 199 Bronze medals were awarded to athletes. The host Nepal's performance was their best ever yet in South Asian Games and were placed only second to India. ''Note:'' 28 Golds of Nepal came from

and

. The gold medal won by Pramila Thapa in taekwondo was the first gold medal in Nepal's taekwondo history and sports council's history.

References

South Asian Games S S South Asian Games, 1999 1999 in Asian sport Sport in Kathmandu Multi-sport events in Nepal {{Nepal-sport-stub