Day four of the ongoing Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia, saw two more Bhutanese athletes exit the games.

Two taekwondo athletes, Yeshi Dorji and Sonam Wangchuk, lost in the round of 32 knockouts at the Jakarta Convention Centre plenary hall yesterday.

Yeshi Dorji lost to Mongolia’s Tumenbayar Molom by 2-23 in the men’s under 63kg category. The 22-year-old managed the two points through two Gam-jeoms (a penalty deduction worth one point) in the second round.

Sonam Wangchuk lost by 2-36 to Korea’s Hwajun Lee in the men’s under 80kg category. The match was downright dominated by the Korean with some powerful body kicks combined with quick punches to the body.

The 20-year-old Bhutanese was unusually timid during the fight and failed to capitalise on the counter.

Like in the first fight, the two points were won from two Gam-jeoms. With a minute and 48 seconds still on the clock, the referee called off the match in favour of the Korean.

With seven athletes eliminated, the last taekwondo athlete, Jigme Wangchuk, will fight Gyanendra Hamal of Nepal today in the men’s under 68kg category.

The chef de mission of the Bhutanese contingent, Nim Dorji, said that the performance of the taekwondo athletes have not been up to the mark. “We expected better performance, especially from the boys since they were given about 65 days of training in Korea to prepare for the games,” he said. “If not for the medals, we expected them to at least reach the second round.”

He said that expectations are high from the archery and boxing teams. “The archers have made it into the elimination rounds. We hope they would perform better for us.”

In the compound archery, the Bhutanese men’s team has qualified for the elimination rounds after securing the 13th position from 16 during the ranking round yesterday.

The team made a total of 2,028 points during the ranking rounds and hit 110 10’s and 46 X’s in the process.

An archer on the compound team Tandin Dorji, scored a total of 648 points in two rounds during the qualifying round yesterday. His partners, Tashi Peljor and Phuntsho Wangdi, scored 684 and 660 points respectively.

The elimination round for archery will be held today.

The lone Bhutanese golfer, Ugen Dorji, will tee off at 5:55am (BST) today.

Younten Tshedup | Jakarta

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