Kathmandu: Olympian taekwondo player Sangina Baidya has been appointed director of the Training and Coaching Department of the National Sports Council (NSC), becoming the first woman to hold the position in the council’s six-decade history.

The NSC handed Baidya her appointment letter on Thursday.

Baidya, the first Nepali athlete to qualify for the Olympics through the official qualification process, had qualified for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.

She is also the first Nepali athlete to win a gold medal at the Asian level, having clinched gold at the Asian Taekwondo Championships in 1996.

Baidya won two gold medals at the South Asian Games (SAG), in Kathmandu in 1999 and Pakistan in 2004. She has been serving as a senior taekwondo coach at the NSC.

Baidya was earlier expected to take charge of the Training and Coaching Department in 2081 BS, during the tenure of then NSC Member Secretary Tanklal Ghising. However, karate coach Shobhit Prasai was  controversially appointed as director at the last moment.

Following the development, Baidya had resigned from her position as deputy director of the Training and Coaching Department.