In the finals of the 8th Asian Karate Championship, Bhutanese Karatekas bagged five silver and 37 bronze medals yesterday. His Serene Highness Jigje Singye Wangchuck graced the closing ceremony of the championship in the capital. Bhutan hosted the South Asian Karate Championship for the first time.
Bhutan received five silver medals in the kata individual female juniors above 66-kilogramme category, Kumite individual male seniors under-67 kilogramme category, Kumite individual female juniors under-55 kilogramme, kumite individual female seniors under-45 kilogramme category and kata males junior team category.
Similarly, Bhutanese athletes also received 37 bronze medals in different weight categories. 47 Bhutanese karatekas took part in the tournament.
During the two-day tournament, the participants competed in different weight categories in cadet, junior, under-21, and senior divisions.
“I had a match with Nepal. I think that she had played with other international players earlier. Since this was my first time, I could only bag a silver medal placing in the second position. However, in the future, I will try my best and make my country proud by bagging the gold medal,” said Sumitra Tamang, a silver medalist.
“I asked my friends whether I would get an opportunity to take part in the South Asian Championship in the country. My friends said that there is an opportunity in the under-67 kg weight category. I took the opportunity to take part in the competition and trained for about a month. Training for a month is not enough for me when I compete with them when we compete with experienced karatekas. They are playing with confidence and as we did not train more we are unable to compete as expected. I hope to perform better in the future,” said Mani Raj Rai, another silver medalist.
Similarly, Nepal won 62 medals; 31 gold, 20 silver, and 11 bronze.
68 karatekas from Nepal took part in the event.
Indian karate team took home 60 medals including 27 gold, 20 silver, and 13 bronze. 73 athletes took part in the competition from India.
The Sri Lankan Team received 5 gold, 18 silver and 31 bronze medals. 56 Karatekas from Sri Lanka took part in the championship.
Kushal Shrestha, Head Coach of Nepal said “Bhutanese players are very energetic but they have missed technical things. In the Karate field, we have to develop karate techniques and Bhutan’s karate team needs to train technical things since they have techniques problem.”
Keerthan Khandru, India’s Head Coach said “Bhutan Karate team is very big this time and they have given a very good competition to the Indian karate team as well as to other countries like Nepal and Sri Lanka. So, Bhutan is growing a lot and definitely in the future Bhutan will be a very big competitor to the Indian karate team. We are looking ahead, congratulations to all the medal winners of Bhutan. Bhutan Karatekas need to come and compete in so many competitions because India is a neighbouring country and a big country, they can always come down to India for goodwill tournaments.”
According to South Asian Karate Do Federation President Bharat Sharma, they have plans to conduct more seminars and competitions in Bhutan to promote karate in Bhutan.
“Bhutan’s karate players have good potential but they never had international experience and exposure. So in our meeting with the South Asian Karate Federation, we decided to promote karate in Bhutan and this Championship will give enthusiasm and encouragement to Bhutan karate players. In future, they will achieve more and more medals at the international level.”
More than 200 karatekas and over 400 officials from Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka took part in the competition.
The Bhutan Karate Association with support from the Bhutan Olympic Committee organised the championship
Karma Wangdi
Edited by Phub Gyem
