Competition: At the end of day-two of the 12th South Asian Games (SAG) at least two medals have been confirmed for the Bhutanese contingent taking part in the 12-day competition in Guwahati and Shillong.

The Bhutanese compound archery team will take on host India for the gold medal at the JNL Sports Complex Polo Ground in Shillong, today. Similarly, in individual compound archery, Tshewang Dorji and Tashi Peljor of Bhutan will take on each other for the bronze medal.

Four more medals are expected from the Bhutanese archers at Shillong. In the men’s recurve team competition, Bhutan will play against Sri Lanka for bronze tomorrow. The recurve women’s team will take on Bangladesh for another bronze and the mixed recurve team will play against Sri Lanka, also for bronze.

In the women’s individual recurve competition, Tshering Dema will play against Bangladesh for another bronze medal.

However, the likelihood of winning any medals from the other disciplines looks unclear at the moment. While most of the games are yet to start, Bhutan lost in three disciplines on day-two of the competition in Guwahati and Shillong yesterday.

Team Bhutan lost to Sri Lanka in badminton in Shillong yesterday.

In tennis, the men’s doubles and mix doubles teams both lost to Nepal in the morning at the All Assam Tennis Association Centre in Guwahati. Thinley Norbu and Tenzin Singye Dorji were defeated in a straight set of 1-6, 1-2.

The team’s head coach Tshering Namgay said that the performance of the players on the day was not up to the mark. “It was not the opponent who won the points but our unforced errors gave them the victory,” he said. “Our players can do better than this.”

In football, Nepal thrashed Bhutan 5-0 at the Sai Regional Centre in Guwahati. The seesaw battle between the two Himalayan nations saw both teams creating equal opportunities in the first 30 minutes of the game.

It was Nepal’s striker Nawayug Shrestha who rose to the occasion and broke the deadlock in the 33rd minute of the first half. Ten minutes later, the Gorkhali Boys doubled their lead with a close ranger from midfielder Bishal Rai.

Nepal dominated the second half of the game intercepting several Bhutanese passes and capitalizing on it. Eleven minutes into the second half, midfielder Anjan Bista curled the ball through the hands of a fully stretched Bhutanese goalie, Tshering Dhendup, to score the third goal of the match.

Striker Nawayug Shrestha scored again in the 76th minute sealing the victory for the Gorkhali Boys. However, he was not done yet, Nawayug Shrestha scored his third goal completing his hat trick for the match.

Bhutan will play Bangladesh tomorrow.

Meanwhile, host India is leading in the medal tally with 24 gold, nine silver and two bronze medals at the end of the second day. Bhutan and Maldives are yet to open their accounts in the competition.

Younten Tshedup