Foundation for Global Children and SEISA group coordinated with All Japan Archery Federation to invite nine archers and coaches. Four archers and two coaches from Bhutan, two archers and one coach from Myanmar stayed in Japan for 10 days from September 12th. Archery majored students of SEISA Kokusai Shonan, Sonam Choden and Nidup Dorji joined as well.
The archers participated in joint training with Aichi Sangyo University and attached Mikawa High School from September 12th. On September 15th and 16th, they joined the 2nd annual of Handa Cup Archery Tournament held in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture. At the tournament, archers from Bhutan and Myanmar played well. However, Japanese archers, candidates for Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, who did very well at the Asiad 2018, had better momentum.
At the exhibition match (mixed –gender recurve) on the 2nd day, Nidup paired with Ms.Tomomi Sugimoto who is a Gold medalist of recurve at Asiad. The pair won the 3rd place. For Nidup, the experience pairing with the gold medalist of Asiad will lead him to the future growth.
After the Handa Cup tournament, athletes stayed at the joint training camp with All Japan assigned archers to help each other to develop their technique of archery. While Bhutanese archers participated in the last year’s tournament, this was the first time for the archers from Myanmar. They seemed to be nervous most of time. However, they returned with satisfying smiles on their faces. We hope to meet them again in the next year’s tournament as well as at Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
