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When Thinley Lhendup graduated with a degree in Finance from Royal Thimphu College in 2023, there was little indication that running would soon become the path that shaped his life. Today, the 25-year-old is a national middle- and long-distance runner representing Bhutan, a scholarship recipient studying sports sustainability in South Korea and a young athlete beginning to think about how he can contribute to the future of sport back home.

When Team Bhutan walked into the stadium in Nagoya for the opening of the 20th Asian Games, the sight of 13 athletes behind the national flag carried a meaning that went well beyond the number itself.

Representing Bhutan in Taekwondo at the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026, Yangkee will compete in the women’s -67kg category, becoming the only Bhutanese Taekwondo athlete in Team Bhutan at these Games.

When the quarterfinal draw appeared at the archery venue in Okazaki, I found myself looking at it for a little longer than usual. Eight names were left from a field of 58, and among them were two names I had been following throughout the day: Lam Dorji and Kinley Tshering.

There is something about watching our athletes compete against opponents who are already established at the highest level of their sport that makes us look beyond the result itself. These are not athletes who are strong simply because of a ranking on a qualification sheet; many have years of international competition behind them, experience at major Games and championships, sophisticated training systems and the benefit of competing regularly against the best in the world. They are elite athletes, and there is every reason to respect the level they have reached.

It was a remarkable day for Bhutanese archery at the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026, as Kinley Tshering and Lam Dorji both advanced to the quarterfinals of the Recurve Men’s Individual competition after producing three successive victories each at the Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square.

Tandin Dorji’s individual compound archery campaign at the 20th Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 came to an end on Monday morning after a closely fought second-round contest against Chinese Taipei’s Chen Chieh-Lun, with the Bhutanese archer losing 145-144 in a match that remained undecided until the final arrow.