Thinley Namgay   

In their first major Paralympic games, the three Bhutanese Paralympians outdid themselves setting new personal records.

The last competition for Bhutan was on September 4, where para-athlete Chimi Dema took part in the women’s F40 shot put event at the Olympic Stadium.

Chimi Dema broke her personal best record of 4.51 metres (m) and set a  new record of 5.04m. She stood last out of nine participants.

Chimi said that she did her best. “This is the biggest competition. I learnt that we have to do more training and work harder to compete with others.”

She said that she would work hard after reaching back. “One day, Bhutan will also win medals. We have to be optimistic.”

She said, “Japan is a developed nation, and their arrangement for this competition was perfect.” 

On September 3, para-archer Pema Rigsel lost to Kirill Smirnov of Russia in the men’s individual recurve open archery elimination round. However, Pema won one of the three sets. During the ranking round on August 27 at the Yumenoshima Park Archery Field, he scored 523 points out of 720.

On September 4, para-athlete Gyeltshen also broke his own record in the men’s F40, shot put event at the Olympic Stadium. Gyeltshen threw 6.31m surpassing his previous record of  6.29m.

The 16th edition games saw 4,537 para-athletes from 163 nations featuring 22 sports, covering 539 medal events at 19 venues. The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games began on August 24 in Japan and ended yesterday.

Team China took home 207 medals, followed by the United Kingdom and the United States with 124 and 104 medals, respectively.

Among the SAARC member countries, India bagged 19 medals, Sri Lanka got two, and Pakistan snatched one.

The athletes will reach home on September 13.

Edited by Tshering Palden




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