The Bhutanese karate team brought home 16 medals, three gold and rest bronze, from the recent Open International Karate Championship.
The competition was held at Khotang Halesi in Nepal, last week.
Sherab Wangchuk, 17, who won a gold medal, was also awarded the Best Player.
“To be honest, I hadn’t expected to win. When I reached Nepal, which is my first time, I saw many skilled players and I thought I was not going to win,” said Sherab.
Yonten Phuentsho and Karma Dorji, also the winners of gold medal, said they will try to win some more medals in the future.
“I was expecting a gold medal,” said Karma Dorji. But, he said he was expecting to win in Kata Category. Instead he won in Kumite Category. Kata is demonstration category and Kumite, a fighting category. “I defeated one of the best international coaches.”
Bhutan Karate Association President, Ugyen Wangchuk said they were sent to Nepal to showcase their experiences which will help them compete during the South-Asian Karate Competition to be held in August.
“Before the participants left for Nepal, we trained them for three months.”
He said since the participants are students they could train them 15-30 minutes daily.
The team will also participate in the open karate competition which will be held in Thailand, next month.
Thirteen teams from Bhutan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka competed in seven categories.
