19^th Aug 2012     the 2012 Best Archer is Tshewang Dorji of team ‘Pelden Group of Co.’ His massive 18 kareys in today’s 15 round ‘Best of Bhutan’ shootout left no doubt of his great skill in the minds of all, including of his opponents – the other top 14 archers of Bhutan. The closest to his total kareys was that of Jigme Norbu who hit 13 kareys – 5 short of the Tshewang Dorji. Jigme Norbu is the 2012 Best Archer Runners Up and the 2^nd Runners Up is Tshetem Phuntsho with his 11 karey total.

They will receive their prizes of Nu. 200, 000, Nu. 50, 000 & Nu. 15, 000 after the Sept 2^nd final match of the tournament. Today His Excellency Lyonpo Kinzang Dorji, President of Bhutan Indigenous Games and Sports Authority, gave medals and certificates to all of the contending top 15 archers after the shootout.

 Tshewang Dorji’s total includes seven dobjis (consecutive hits in a single round) and six bull’s eye hits. He missed in 3^rd, 10^th, 11^th and 15^th round. Midway through the match, at the 7^th round, he had hit 9 kareys while the closest opponents were at 5 kareys. Jigme Norbu at the end of the 11^th round had closed the gap to just 3 kareys but after the 12^th round Tshewang maintained his lead, increasing it in 13^th and 14^th. Had Jigme not missed in the first two rounds, would the results have been different? Jigme missed in the 1^st 2^nd and 15^th round only.

The shootout among the ongoing tournament’s top 15 archers was started last year, when for the first time tournament’s league phase was taken to the regions. Till then, the title and prize (like other individual prizes) for the Best Archer was simply based on the league phase. In order to provide a same playing field (literally as well), another 15 rounds (like a penalty shootout) was set where the top archers (across the regions) would have to prove their skill for the title.

This shootout (dubbed ‘Best of Bhutan Shootout’) was conducted one day after the pchani shootout for the tournament’s Seeded Archers. In the seeded shootout, Sigay Phub came to be the Seeded Gold; Sonam the Seeded Silver and Seeded Bronze was taken by Jigme Norbu. They will take cash prizes of Nu. 15, 000, Nu. 10, 000 and Nu. 5000.The seeded ‘pchani’ shootout is inset competition where only the current seeded archers (based on the performance in past year’s tournament) is allowed to shoot in.

These two days have had the very best of Bhutan prove their talent at the Thimphu Changlimithang ranges. Even before the shootout began, it was almost guaranteed that there would be many kareys (hits) – the question had been how many.  Tshewang Dorji’s total is the boundary.

And yet, there would be more ‘hit’s at Thimphu Changlimithang as quarter finals begin tomorrow (Aug 20) to end by Friday Aug 24. From 27 quarter finalists, there would be 9 teams that would progress to semi finals to play on Saturday and Sunday.

The quarter finalists are the top 27 teams from among the 260 teams that started off the tournament. Like in these two days, there would be more nonstop hits!