The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The 25th edition of the Coronation Cup, a basketball tournament held every year in Thimphu, draws to a close on 17th July. The tournament that started on June 15th has been one of the best in terms of quality said coach and referee Dechen Phurba. “The quality of players and the number of spectators has made this one of the finest tournaments so far.”
The annual tournament has been one of the longest running sports tournaments in Bhutan and the Basketball Federation of Bhutan looks to improve the tournament every year. “We work on trying to improve on what we lacked the year before,” said coach Dechen.
While basketball is a widely loved sport in Bhutan with numerous players but there is a difficulty in getting sponsors. “There aren’t many sponsors for basketball even though it is a popular sport in Bhutan. Sponsors usually go for football or archery,” said coach Dechen. This year’s tournament however, has been sponsored by SD Mining, which has been a welcome change.
There are 5 women’s teams and 28 men’s teams who will all face off against the teams in their respective groups in a round robin format before moving on to a single-elimination knockout format. The prizes on offer for both the Men and Women’s teams are Nu. 90,000 for the winners and Nu. 50,000 for the runners-up.
All matches of the tournament are live streamed on Facebook, on the page Coronation Cup 2019 and the women’s finals will start from 5pm and the men’s finals from 6 pm on the 17th of July.
