Nepal will return home empty handed from Guangzhou in taekwondo, its most successful sport internationally, after its last two players failed to improve their performance on the final day of the event on Saturday.

Nepal's fall from grace occurred after Kumar Manandhar and Sujan Pujari failed to advance to the quarterfinals.

Until now, Nepal had never missed a medal at the Asian Games, amassing a total of 13 bronze and one silver in taekwondo.

Experienced Manandhar had a forgettable bout against Kim Seong-ho of Korea in the men's -54kg class. The sad part was that Manandhar did not earn a single point in the entire match but lost one due to a warning.

Relatively young Pujari fared slightly better. He conceded the men's -58kg match against Bilguun Khosbayar of Mongnolia 9-8.

- The Kathmandu Post