Nepal National Athletics & Endurance Records: Marathon, Track & Swimming

Nepal keeps national records in track and field through the Nepal Athletics Association (NAA) under the National Sports Council (NSC, Rastriya Khel Parishad), and in the pool through the Nepal Swimming Association. Because Nepal is a small athletics nation, several of its records are set at multi-nation meets such as the South Asian Games (formerly the South Asian Federation or SAF Games), Asian Games and Olympic Games rather than at purely domestic events. This means record dates and venues are spread across decades and continents.

The single most famous Nepali record is Baikuntha Manandhar's marathon time of 2 hours 15 minutes 3 seconds, run at the 1987 South Asian Federation Games in Kolkata (then Calcutta), India. It remains both a national and a long-standing regional benchmark nearly four decades later, and is frequently called the most enduring record in Nepali sport. On the track, Shiva Chandra Parki's 10.56-second 100m from the Ninth National Games in Pokhara in October 2022 broke a 23-year-old mark, making him the fastest Nepali runner over the classic sprint distance.

The table below and the 'facts' list summarise headline national bests. Athletics times can change as athletes compete abroad, so always check the current date; the figures here reflect records reported up to mid-2026. Where a mark was set at a heat versus a final, or is pending official ratification, treat it as indicative.

The 100m sprint is the record most people search for, and the answer is Shiva Chandra Parki. Running for the Armed Police Force (APF) Club at the Ninth National Games in Pokhara, Kaski, on 15 October 2022, Parki clocked 10.56 seconds. That erased the 10.71-second national record set by Ram Krishna Chaudhary at the Eighth SAF Games in Kathmandu in 1999, a mark that had stood for 23 years. In the same race, Army athlete Yubaraj BK ran 10.58s and Dilli Bhandari 10.70s, showing how tightly bunched Nepal's top sprinters had become.

On the women's side, the 1999 record of 12.19 seconds by Devi Maya Paneru also fell at the 2022 Pokhara Games. Saraswati (Saraswoti) Chaudhary of the Tribhuvan Army Club won the women's 100m final in 12.13 seconds, while Nisha Chaudhary of Lumbini had earlier lowered the old mark in the heats. Nepali women's sprinting has since continued to improve at provincial and open meets, so the women's mark is one to watch for further updates.

These sprint records highlight a pattern in Nepali athletics: national records that stood since the 1999 Kathmandu SAF Games were finally broken in a wave at the 2022 National Games in Pokhara, reflecting better training within the Army (Tribhuvan Army Club) and Armed Police Force sports programmes that anchor competitive athletics in Nepal.

Beyond the sprints, Nepal's track records span the 400m to 10,000m. Som Bahadur Kumal holds the men's 400m record of 47.95 seconds (Pokhara, 2022) and the 800m record of 1:50.25 (Asian Games, Jakarta, 2018). In the longer events, Deepak Adhikari set a 10,000m national record of 29:35.06 at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, while Nepal's distance women have rewritten several marks in the mid-2020s.

The crown jewel remains the marathon. Baikuntha Manandhar, born on 24 December 1951, competed in four consecutive Olympic Games from 1976 to 1988 and won marathon gold at the first three editions of the SAF Games. His 2:15:03 at Kolkata in 1987 was Nepal's national record and a South Asian best, and it is still the national record today. Manandhar, often described as Nepal's first true sporting superstar, has publicly said he would be happiest if a fellow Nepali finally surpassed it.

Women's marathon records have moved more recently: reports from late 2025 credit Santoshi Shrestha with lowering the women's national marathon record at an international road race, alongside strong 5000m and 10,000m runs. Because these newer distance marks depend on official ratification and can change quickly, treat the very latest women's figures as indicative and verify against the Nepal Athletics Association before quoting a specific time.

Nepal's signature endurance event is the Everest Marathon, run in the Khumbu (Everest) region of Solukhumbu district and widely promoted as the highest marathon in the world by starting altitude. The best-known modern edition is the Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon, organised annually by Himalayan Expeditions with approval from the Government of Nepal and the Nepal Tourism Board. It starts near Everest Base Camp at roughly 5,356 metres (about 17,500 feet) at the Khumbu Icefall and finishes downhill at Namche Bazaar at around 3,440 metres (about 11,300 feet).

The race is held on 29 May each year, the anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest by Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Sir Edmund Hillary on 29 May 1953, which is why the event carries their names. Because of the extreme altitude, runners trek up over several days to acclimatise before the start, and the course follows rocky Sherpa trails rather than paved roads. It offers three distances: a 21 km half marathon, the 42 km full marathon, and a 60 km extreme ultramarathon.

There is an important distinction for citation: an earlier, separate event also called the 'Everest Marathon' was pioneered by British organisers (Bufo Ventures) and first run in 1987, held roughly every two years for charity. The annual Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon dates from 2003, when it was launched to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1953 ascent. Both are legitimately described as among the world's highest marathons; be specific about which one you mean.

A note on the Guinness World Record: while the Everest Marathon has the highest starting altitude of any established road-style marathon, the Guinness 'highest marathon' record is separately recognised for a descent run from the summit of Ojos del Salado in the Andes. Nepal's claim is best phrased as the highest-altitude marathon start, or the world's highest annual marathon, rather than an unqualified Guinness record.

The thin air and steep, technical descent make Everest Marathon finishing times far slower than a sea-level marathon, so its 'records' are course records rather than world-class clockings. The men's course record is commonly reported as 3 hours 28 minutes 27 seconds, set by Nepali runner Deepak Rai in 2006. Sherpa and other Nepali highland runners, acclimatised to altitude from birth, dominate the podium, and multiple editions have been won by local athletes such as Sudip Kulung.

For international participants the times are naturally slower; a frequently cited foreign benchmark is around 4 hours 50 minutes. The gap between local and visiting runners illustrates the huge physiological advantage of altitude acclimatisation and lifelong trail experience in the Khumbu. For tourists, the marathon is as much an expedition and bucket-list adventure as a competitive race.

Everest Marathon course records are not maintained in the same rigorous, ratified way as World Athletics track and road records, so exact figures can vary between sources and editions. Quote them as approximate course bests attributed to the event organiser rather than an official governing body.

Beyond the Everest Marathon, Nepal hosts a growing calendar of high-altitude trail and multi-stage races, many curated by Trail Running Nepal. The Mustang Trail Race is a supported, roughly eight-stage event covering about 170 km through the trans-Himalayan, culturally Tibetan Upper Mustang region behind the Annapurna massif, typically run in spring at altitudes between about 2,900 m and 4,300 m. Runners carry a light pack while gear is portered, and stages finish at teahouses.

The Mardi Himal area hosts ridge and skyrunning-style events in the Annapurna region above Pokhara, with distances commonly offered around 50 km, 70 km and 100 km that climb from forest camps near 2,550 m to high camps around 3,580 m through rhododendron forest and alpine ridgelines. In autumn, the Manaslu Trail Race provides a comparable multi-day stage-race experience around the Manaslu circuit, completing a spring-and-autumn pair of flagship stage races.

These events do not carry formally ratified 'national records' the way the 100m or marathon do, because courses, distances and conditions change year to year. Their significance is as tourism and adventure-sport showcases that put Nepali trail runners on the international map. Most are commercial international events run on public Himalayan trails, with results published by the organisers rather than a government sports body, so cite the specific organiser for any time or placing.

In the pool, Nepal's national records (long course, 50m pool) are led by two names. Gaurika Singh, who first drew global attention as a 13-year-old at the 2016 Rio Olympics, holds multiple women's national records; her 50m freestyle mark is around 28.09 seconds (2017) and her 100m freestyle around 1:00.11 set in a Tokyo 2020 Olympic heat in 2021. She has long been Nepal's most prominent female swimmer.

On the men's side, Alexander Shah holds leading freestyle records, including roughly 23.79 seconds for 50m freestyle (Kathmandu, 2023) and about 51.91 seconds for 100m freestyle set at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. As with athletics, Nepal's swimmers set several of their fastest times at global meets, because Nepal qualifies athletes to the Olympics via universality places rather than automatic standards.

Swimming records in Nepal are maintained by the Nepal Swimming Association and can be updated at events such as the national swimming championships and international meets, so the figures above are as-of the mid-2020s. When citing a swimming record, note whether the time was set in a heat or final and whether it was long course (50m) or short course (25m).