Tournament marred by ‘incidents’

12th Coronation Silver Jubilee Trophy 1 June, 2010 - That archery is not a gentleman’s game and that sometimes excitement can overshadow reasoning was proven on May 27 when a Paro Utd archer flashed his undergarments in full view during the 12th coronation silver jubilee trophy tournament at Changlimithang and used abusive words while playing against Karma TMT.

Officials of the Bhutan archery federation (BAF) described the match between Paro United team and Karma TMT as the most embarrassing and unfriendly game in recent years.

Another archer from the same team, while playing against Destroyer on May 19, burned chilis at the ground, which, according to BAF, is prohibited. BAF rules prohibits archers from burning anything that emits smoke. Archers from Destroyer reported the matter to the tournament director, after which the culprit was warned. Officials said that the chili burner was also seen showing abusive signs with his fingers in the last round of the game against spectators, who were in favour of Karma TMT. “Spectators were infuriated with his behaviour,” said an official from BAF, adding that he was lucky that it was the last round of the game.

Assistant secretary general of BAF, Jurmin Wangdi, said that most of the players were half intoxicated, which resulted in the misconduct. The federation has not penalised the archers however. “We didn’t take any action, but warned them, because such kind of incident happens very occasionally,” said Jurmin Wangdi, adding that archery is a very tense and challenging game, and it was in the tradition to try and distract the opponent from hitting the target without touching him.

The assistant secretary general did not blame only alcohol for the bad behaviour and said that archery is a physical as well as mental game, where both teams try to pull each others’ legs. However, Jurmin Wangdi said that, if archers got physical, they would be suspended from the tournament for three years. He said that a meeting would be organised with the team leaders for feedback on formulating new rules.

BAF tournament director Pema Tshering said that generally the players were professional and followed the rules accordingly. “It was only a handful of them that did not comply with the rules,” he said.

By Kuenga Tendar

http://www.kuenselonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=15626