2^nd Sept 2012      it was after team ‘Pelden Group of Companies’ completed their 7^th straight win today that they became the 2012 Team Champions and received their prizes from Her Royal Highness Princess Dechen Yangzom Wangchuck, who graced the final match of the 16^th Yangphel Open Archery Tournament as Chief Guest.

Her Royal Highness also presented prizes and certificates to Team Champion Runners Up – the team Yul-Gyel – the surprise finalist and 2^nd Runners Up team ‘Dragon Roots’ from Phuentsholing.

From among the team champions – the Pelden Group, there was also the individual champion Tshewang Dorji (also known as ‘ST’) who took away prize of Nu. 200, 000/- that came along with 2012 Best Archer title. His team mate Tshetrim Phuntsho was the 2^nd runners up to the Best Archer (with cash prize of Nu. 15, 000/-) while Best Archer Runners Up title with Nu. 50, 000/- was taken by Jigme Norbu of Blue Poppy Tours. Pelden Group’s Tshering Gyeltshen and last year’s Best Archer took the ‘Finals Most Valuable Player’ with total of 32 kareys in 3 final matches (quarter, semi & today’s final). He also received the prize for creating record one day score last year, with 20 kareys in 20 rounds.

It was deserving win for Pelden Group, not only because of their prior performance in the in this year’s tournament, ranking top in the league, hitting highest 50 kareys in the knockout stage and never having to go into penalty shootout to win a match but also because in today’s final they hit 54 kareys – the highest of the present total. The semi finalists Gyelyong Gaki is the only team in the tournament that saw 260 teams that matched the total. Pelden Group is also 2012 team champions.

Pelden Group won with 2 game sets, one that was completed in the 4^th round and the other that was completed in the 9^th round.  Till the start of the 14^th round, everyone expected Pelden Group to win but see penalty shootout between Dragon Roots and Yul-Gyel. But Yul-Gyell shattered everyone’s hope of seeing an intense shootout when Yul-Gyel completed one game set in the 14^th round.  Yul-Gyel hit 39 kareys while Dragon Roots hit 36.

Pelden Group’s win seemed no surprise and most had not decided between two runners up anyway. And all of them are winners anyway, since they are the top three teams from among the 260 teams of different regions of our country. The Best of Bhutan!

Along with prizes for the tournament, there was also giveaway prize distribution that was given away by Ashi Sonam Wangmo. A total of 25 prizes were given out on free raffle while one was held to curb littering at the Changlimithang range. The winning lot number would be announced in Bhutan Observer issue of 7^th Sept. 2012.

26^th Aug 2012     everyone today at Thimphu Changlimithang range expected either Gyelyong Gaki or Druk Lhayul to win the last semi final match of the 16^th Yangphel Open Archery Tournament. But it was not to be, as Phuentsholing’s Dragon Roots quietly completed two game sets against none of Druk Lhayul and one of Gyelyong Gaki to be one of the finalists of 2012 tournament.  

Today’s semi final was one of the most competitive matches of the tournament, as the 3 teams matched each other karey for karey. It was only in the 8^th round that first game set of the match was completed by Dragon Roots. At the end of this 8^th round, each of them had hit equal 18 kareys. In fact the total karey at the end of the match remains to be 38 of Gyelyong Gaki, 37 of Dragon Roots and 35 of Druk Lhayul Const. It was in the last round, that Dragon Roots completed their 2^nd game set with 3 bull’s eye hit, one sa-karey and one karey. In this last round, team in yellow – the Druk Lhayul was rooted on by the spectators since they were only one without any game set, Gyelyong Gaki had completed one game set in the 11^th round. Everyone was hoping for penalty shootout between all of the team, but Dragon Root’s five hits made it unnecessary for any of them to have extra shots. Dragon Roots, who had been discounted even before the start of match, won to play finals on Sep 2.

On Sep 2, Dragon Roots would be joined by winners of yesterday’s (Aug 26) semi final matches – Pelden Group of Co. from the lower bacho and Yul-Gyel from the upper bacho. From the upper bacho, last year’s finalists Sonam Automobiles was expected to overcome Yul-Gyel and Ice Berg by many, yet Thimphu Phaka’s Yul-Gyel quietly completed two game sets in 4^th and 8^th round which could not be matched. Sonam Auto did glean one in the 11^th round.  

It was quiet victory for Yul-Gyel as the general attention was taken by the competition continuing at the lower bacho. And there, it looked like another underdog would win as ‘Snow Lion in Style’ kept the stronger Pelden Group of Co. on their toes till the very last round.  Snow Lion had the best chance to equalize the 3^rd game set of Pelden Group in the last two rounds.  Snow Lion had completed the their first game set in first round itself which was matched in the 4^th round and overtaken in the 5^th round by Pelden Group. The two game sets of Pelden Group were then matched by Snow Lion in the 7^th round. Pelden again overtook Snow Lion in the 10^th round with their 3^rd game set.

The 3^rd game set of Pelden Group would have been matched by Snow Lion if not for Ata Boning that kept Snow Lion from completing their third game set crucially in the 14^th and 15^th round. In these last two rounds, Pelden Group could hit only one karey each, while Snow Lion hit 2 and 3 kareys in each, which were quite enough to complete their 3^rd game set since they already had 5 points (2 points shy of a game set) from the 13^th round. But Ata Boning players particularly Kinley Dorji hit not miss in these two rounds, matching Snow Lion’s karey and even making a point in the last round. Ata Boning kept Snow Lion in check and taking away the need to have penalty shootout and deciding the match in Pelden Group’s favour. Even though Ata Boning did not complete any game set, they did decide the match. Snow Lion gave tremendous performance and was worthy opponent to Pelden Group. Their seeded player Kinley Tshering made crucial hits, taking Snow Lion to nearer to their 3^rd game set but it was not enough. Snow Lion hit as many as Pelden Group with 38 kareys. It was but the Ata Boning factor that kept them away from 2012 finals.

Ata Boning had come almost unnoticed till the stage, when their defeat drew the biggest attention. Now would other underdogs draw attention during the final? Yul-Gyel had almost been unheard of and Dragon Roots (though the best team from Phuentsholing) had been discounted against Gyelyong Gaki and Druk Lhayul Const. yet they are now the finalists. Pelden Group would have to watch out for them, for they may have been underestimated, they are not weak. After all they have become two of the three best teams of 2012 from among 26o that started off the tournament. They could become the best. Like today, the year does seem to favour the underdogs. The Sept 2^nd final will show.

24^th Aug 2012     it looked like that the single quarter final match today would be decided through penalty shootout at the Lower Changlimithang range. The last 2012 quarter final match of the 16^th Yangphel Open Archery Tournament was played between ‘Snow Lion in Style’, ‘Kencho Tshering Construction’ and ‘Tshamgar Construction.’ The team Kencho Tshering completed early game set in the 4^th round which was equalized by ‘Snow Lion in Style’ in the sixth round – and for the next 8 rounds till the 14^th no game set could be completed. And when all had resigned to penalty shootout, Snow Lion In Style hit 3 kareys in the last 15^th round to add five points to their earlier 2 points made in the 9^th round. Their opponent ‘Kencho Tshering Const.’ did have 5 points till the 14^th but was not able to convert into the 2^nd game set. It was Snow Lion who completed the winning game set in the last round, when none from Kencho Tshering Const. hit any kareys. The single karey in this round from Tshamgar Const. was not enough to hold ‘Snow Lion In Style’ in having them complete the match in style. Tshamgar Const. could complete no game set with their mere 17 kareys. No penalty shootouts were necessary.

But three of the nine quarter final matches were decided through penalty shootouts. Ata Boning won to be 2012 semi finalist after they had tied with teams of Planet Gym and Chituen Construction at 1 game set each on the 23 Aug. Before then, Sonam Automobiles also won in penalty shootout after they had tied with Treasure Vase at two game sets each. And perhaps, biggest upset of this stage could be when Druk Lhayul Const. defeated Blue Poppy and Lhendup Tshe Charo after 3 penalty shootouts. Monggar’s Lhendup Tse Charo though had 43 kareys could not complete single game set during then.

The highest number of game set during the quarter final stage was completed by Gyelyong Gaki when they hit 54 kareys (as much as league highest total of Pelden Group) to complete 5 game sets to completely rout Tsirang’s best team Foster and Zorig Consultancy of Paro. Gyelyong Gaki’s Tharchen hit 16 kareys – the stage individual high on which his team mate Gem Tshering added 14 kareys. Between two of them, they hit more than their opponents’ team totals. Amazing, as one archer remarked, “what do they eat to play like this?”

Pelden Group of Co. and Yulgyel each completed 3 game sets (with their 41 and 43 kareys respectively) while all others 2012 semi finalists completed less than two during the quarters.

But they would need to complete more than two to progress further in their semi final match beginning tomorrow (Aug 25) and ending day after. This weekend would see the battles between the 9 best teams (of 26o teams that started off the tournament in July), to see which becomes the best three to play finals on Sunday Sept 2.

Nothing is given; there could be some upsets like during the quarter finals. Blue Poppy Tours was strong team that was defeated during this stage. The tournament favourites Kabi Lungchuk and Sichey Mavericks of Sikkim (that was cheered on at every stage by all the Bhutanese spectators) lost out during the quarters as well. The Monggar team Lhendup Tse Charo’s big total of 43 kareys not being able to complete any game sets and losing out is another. In fact, Dragon Roots remains to be only semi finalist that is outside of Thimphu and Paro. The strong teams from other regions have been seen out. There maybe surprises this weekend like today’s match – nothing is given.

21^st Aug 2012      the Yangphel Archery Committee has declared the winners of league based prizes. Most of the individual prizes are based on the league (except for Finals Most Valuable Players) in order to provide equal opportunity for all the participating individual archers despite their team performance.

This official confirmation has been announced 11 days after the league, since Best of Bhutan shootout had to be completed before deciding the grand prize winner. No individual archer can take two or more prizes (except for records and inset competition like Pchani Seeded Shootout), as such the organizing committee needed to wait to see how some of the top archers performed to decide which prize they would be eligible for. For example, Tshewang Dorji was eligible for both ‘Highest Dobji’ and ‘Highest One day League Score’ but since he won the title of Best Archer and Two Hundred Thousand that comes along, these two prizes have been given to the next best performing archer in the corresponding category.

Jigme Norbu would be taking two prizes for the 2^nd Best Archer and Seeded Bronze, since Seeded Shootout is taken to be separate inset competition.  The prizes would be given on Sept 2 final match.

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!