Quake survivor Gaurika puts Nepal on swim map

JAKARTA: Having survived a killer earthquake and an embarrassing wardrobe glitch at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Nepali swimmer Gaurika Singh is not your typical 15-year-old. The bubbly schoolgirl made waves as the youngest athlete at the Olympics but is happy to shed that tag and reveals that she has come out of her shell since her baby-faced appearance in Brazil. “A lot of my friends say I’m really loud, which is fair enough because I am,” Singh said. “I sometimes think in my head ‘oh just shut up, Gaurika -you’re so annoying!’ I’m a social person.”

Singh, who left Nepal as a toddler to move to London, got into a flap in Rio when she tore her swimsuit before her 100m backstroke heat before slipping on a new costume and winning the race. Fast forward two years and Singh is strolling around the Asian Games pool in Jakarta like a seasoned pro.

Alcohol-free Village leave officials high and dry

PALEMBANG: The ‘no alcohol’ policy at the Asian Games Village has not gone down well with the coaches and officials travelling with the athletes. Some have even tried to smuggle alcohol into the Village but with little success. An alcohol-free zone is not a surprise considering Indonesia banned liquor sale from departmental stores in 2015, barring the tourist-heavy Bali province. Indonesia also has the largest Muslim population in the world. While alcohol is readily available in pubs and restaurants in co-host Jakarta, it is tough to find even a mild beer in the port city of Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra province.