News

18th Jul 2014              at the end of the 8th day of the tournament, much has happened. Some of the leagues (in different regions) of the ongoing 18th Yangphel Open Archery Tournament has been completed. Some individual players and then teams are shining and have already booked their place in the eliminations at Thimphu Changlimithang.

From Bumthang, Laya Tours and Chithuen Charos are coming to the Changlimithang. Laya Tours have hit total of 123 kareys – the 2nd highest so far in the tournament. Only team Ananpanan from Paro has the higher total of 135 kareys. While Ananpanan have played all of their 3 league matches, the Paro’s league will go on till July 26 to have other teams complete all of the three league matches, that a participating teams gets to play in the tournament.

The top player of Ananpanan Yeshi Dorji has hit total of 41 kareys, the highest league total of the ongoing tournament so far. The highest individual league total in the 18 year history of the tournament is 46 kareys by Jigme Norbu. Many believe that there would be others that could surpass Yeshi Dorji’s total, among whom the most likelihood would be Phub Dorji of Tshering Metog (Thimphu Phaka team) who has 33 kareys from just two league matches. Then there is Jigme Norbu of Druk Lhayul Const. who has two match total of 24 kareys or Gem Tshering who has 14 kareys from one match. But it is given that there would not be many.

Even the team total of 135 kareys (helped by Yeshi’s amazing 12, 12 and 17 kareys in his 3 league matches) may not be easily matched. For example, two team qualifying from Gelegphu has 77 and 78 kareys (of teams ‘Nim Dem Construction’ and ‘Druk Phunsum Construction’) , which are quite above average but bit far down from Ananpanan.

From Monggar, Selwai Melong and Kilung Wanchen Dharma comes to Changlimithang eliminations and has total of 91 and 95 kareys. Not that karey total matters, given that it is the points that each team gathers from each league game that the ‘automatic’ qualification is based on. Only for wild card entries (10 teams this year) does the karey total matter.

From among those teams that have not received automatic qualification, ten teams with highest karey would receive wild card entry into the eliminations. There are 62 teams that would qualify by points and ten more would be added as ‘Jokers’ or ‘Wild Card Entrants” In total 72 teams would qualify for the eliminations. Each region has proportionate to total teams, certain number qualifying.

From Samdrupjongkhar, the newest league of the tournament, has teams Thokgyal and Ling Gesar Detshen qualifying through points. Except for Dungsam Khotsa, there is very less chance that any Samdrupjongkhar teams would qualify through wild card entry or karey total since it has the one of the lowest average total. The samdrupjongkhar has the team DOCC, which is earning the dubious reputation of having the lowest karey total in the 2014 league with their 13 kareys from 3 matches. But there more league matches to be played and so that maybe changed.

But it is assured that the team with the lowest total will not be from Trashigang, Trongsa or Tsirang since the league there has been completed and their lowest is much higher! From Trashigang, Danglingpas and Methidrang have qualified while from Trongsa, the three teams of Mangdeps, Targeter and Khordey Ngadey Zangpo come for eliminations like Semthuen Nga and Jojos from Tsirang. Kubera from Bumthang with 99 kareys could be one of the ‘jokers’

A total of 72 teams will play the eliminations starting Aug 8 at Changlimithang. The league would be completed by Aug 3 in all of the regions.

12th Jul 2014             the start of the 18th Yangphel Open Archery Tournament is seeing high performances, some being displayed, as expected, by the big names while few unknown archers are rising to get noticed. The 11th July start of the tournament saw 2008 Champion Gem Tshering hit 14 kareys in Paro match. He is leading team Jatsha Const. The same day, Jigme Norbu (team Druk Lhayul Const.) who has the highest per match average of 13.6 (from last year’s tournament) hit 13 kareys. These names are well known. 

But not many take Phub Dorji’s name while talking about the Gem Tshering or Jigme Norbu. Phub Dorji is better known for his Tshering Metog TV series and the studio with the same name. Phub Dorji has team named Tshering Metog that is playing at Thimphu Phaka and has hit 18 kareys in a single match of 15 rounds.The same number took the prize and title of One Day Best League Score last year. It remains to be 3rd highest number of individual total hit by anybody in 18 year history of the tournament.

His team ‘Tshering Metog’ has hit 51 kareys, which will remain as one of the highest kareys of the tournament. As of now, the closest to that total is 48 by Druk Lhayul Const. the team that has Jigme Norbu and 42 kareys of Jatsha Construction featuring Gem Tshering. These individuals are raking up the numbers for their teams.

And such performances are also expected of other names that played during the start of the tournament such as 2012 Best Archer Tshewang Dorji and of three time champion Talop Namgay Wangchuk, both of whom are playing for the team ‘Pelden Group of Companies’ – the team champion of 2012 and one of the runners up in 2013. The July 12 also saw the reigning champion from last year play who had to contend with just 5 kareys.

But then there are more league matches to play and experience has shown that these individuals would rise. Others have done enough to give the tournament a blazing start, they will surely catch on…for blazing tournament.

Such a start promises incinerating knockout stage (after all these ongoing 12 qualifying leagues are completed) starting Aug 8 at Thimphu Changlimithang. 

02 Jul 2014            the Yangphel Open Archery Tournament now extends further, with two additional venues for league being added to already ten districts in which the qualifying stages are played in. The newest addition is the district of Samdrupjongkhar filling in neatly the gap in the south eastern side of Bhutan. The young local organizer Lotay Gyetshen is confident that there would be more than a dozen team from this emerging region.

From the south central, it used to be that either of Gelegphu (Sarbang) or Tsirang that alternately became the venue for the tournament’s league but this year, both them host would be hosting league in their own districts, making it one more additional regional venue for the tournament.

With addition of Samdrupjongkhar and Tsirang, the total regional venues has become twelve while Thimphu and Paro would need to have additional local venue, taking total league venues to 14 in all. The other districts are Bumthang, Monggar, Paro, Phuentsholing, Punakha, Sarbang (Gelephu), Thimphu, Trashigang and Trongsa. These districts are central to certain region of the country and as such receives participation from surrounding districts.

In Thimphu, the two Babesa ranges are to be used (with possibility of adding another) while in Bumthang, the range has been moved to Chumey, named Royal Wedding range. In all other venues, the ranges remain same.

The registration for the 2014 tournament is open to be closed by July 4. The 18th Yangphel Open Archery Tournament begins July 11 to conclude with final match on the Aug 30. The organizers say that with additional venues and increasing participation, they would be ‘reaching out’ further and more.

02 June 2014       The highest average in individual performance of 2013 tournament is 13.6 kareys hit by Jigme Norbu, who played for Druk Shopping Complex last year. In 2012, the same Jigme Norbu (playing for Blue Poppy then) hit 14.8 kareys in 15 rounds and was also the highest. Not only the individual highest average is lower but also the national average has come to be lower with 4.2 kareys in 15 rounds as against 4.4 kareys the year before. The decrease is attributed to increasing number of new players which may have brought the median down.

Sherab Tharchen, the best archer of the last year’s tournament, has hit the Thimphu highest of 12 kareys in 15 rounds. 

As since last year, the seeding of archers is now based on their average performance in the tournament and as such it takes into account of each and every matches a player has played instead of statutory three league matches. A missed match or matches in advanced stages (i.e. knockout and finals) is taken into account.

Along with the seeds list, the Yangphel Archery Committee have announced dates of the 2014 18th Yangphel Open Archery Tournament. It is now confirmed that the 18th Yangphel Open Archery Tournament will begin from the July 11 and end Saturday 30th August. The organizing committee has now decided that the finals of the tournament will be held last Saturday of August every year, so that with  consistent dates the it enables archers to prepare for the yearly tournament.

It was also decided that the seeded list for the each year would be announced with new lunar year (dangpa losar) and would remain in effect till the next losar.  The new lunar year falls between end of February to early March on solar calendar and so should provide  3 months of preparation time for archers. In this way, it would also provide updated information to the local organizers who have some regional tournaments before then.

Announcement

26th Sept 2013      The winning lot for the ‘Green Prize’ drawn through free raffle during the final of the 17^th Yangphel Open Archery Tournament is 8044.

This is 2^nd draw of the lot since there was none to claim the earlier drawn number.

The winner must contact Yangphel Office near Memorial Stupa by Oct 31, 2013 afterwhich the prize would be given away in next year’s tournament.

(Yangphel Archery Committee)