Tilak Ram Tharu was the sole male competitor in athletics to represent Nepal at the London Olympic Games. He had not participated in any previous Olympic Games. Tharu qualified for the Games by using a wildcard because his fastest time of eleven seconds at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics was 0.76 seconds slower than the "B" qualifying standard for the men's 100 metres. He said that he did not expect to get the chance to take part in the Olympic Games and set himself the objective of recording a new Nepalese national record. Tharu spent two months training in Nepal alongside his period in Kent. He was drawn in the fourth heat in the preliminary round on 4 August, finishing fifth out of eight athletes, with a time of 10.85 seconds. Overall Tharu finished 59th out of 75 competitors overall, and did not advance to the later stages because he was 0.23 seconds slower than the slowest athlete in his heat who progressed to the first round. He was unable to obtain the Nepalese national record but stated his faster time was a positive although he felt Nepal required better training facilities.