Pun claims maiden individual archery medal

Shillong, February 9

Prem Prasad Pun won the Individual Recurve bronze medal in the 12th South Asian Games here at the JLN Sports Complex becoming the first archer to win individual medal in the regional sports extravaganza today.

Pun outplayed Sri Lanka’s Nipuna Senevirathne 6-0 in the third-place match to claim the archery’s maiden individual medal. Pun was the member of the team that won bronze medal in the previous edition of the SA Games in Dhaka five years ago.

Pun said winning medal for the country was a proud moment. “I am more than happy today as I could win medal for Nepal,” he said. The 44-year-old archer from Rabibhawan, who hails from Myagdi, said he was confident of winning medal in the regional games this time around. “The scores in training sessions were also good and I came fourth in the ranking round before the tournament. So I was confident of kissing the medal,” said Pun.

After the ranking round, Pun received a bye in the first round and defeated Bangladesh’s Sojeb Shiek 6-0 in the quarter-finals to set up a clash with silver medallist of 2005 World Archery Championship and 2010 Asian Games and 11th SA Games gold winner Tarundep Rai of India. Pun faced a 6-2 loss against Rai, who went on to win gold medal ahead of his countryman Gurcharan Besra.

Pun said he was not satisfied with the overall performance. “I was expecting at least a silver medal,” he said. “This is also an achievement and I am happy to make the country proud.” Pun said winning medal with the facilities back home was not easy. “We do not have proper facilities back home that prevents us from appropriate training to compete against tough opponents,” he added.

Nepal had fielded 12 players — eight in men and four in women’s sections — in archery and the sport ended up with a single bronze medal. Team manager Basanta Thakali was also not satisfied with the overall performance of the team. “We earned a historic medal in individual section which is a great achievement. But we were weak in team events and performed badly than the previous edition of the Games,” said Thakali.