The Royal Thimphu College celebrated its 5^th Annual Sports Day on Saturday, 18^th May 2013. This celebration was dedicated to the graduating class of 2013 who will graduate this July.

Mr. Tshewang Tandin, Director General, Department of Adult and Higher Education graced the event as the Honorable Chief Guest.  The half-day event was declared open with the lighting of the Olympic Torch by Mr. Tshewang Tandin.

The RTC ground wore a festive look with colorful banners and flags. Student volunteers, faculty and staff put in their best efforts to provide an ideal platform for the students to showcase their sporting talents. The Student Government organized the event consisting of track and field events and tug of wars between the different programs. The sports day also included events especially for the final year students. Among the 6 program-based combined teams, BCA, Eco – Evs and Soc-Pol. Sc was declared the overall winner. In addition to the active involvement of the students, International exchange students from Wheaton College and Texas A&M along with RTC staff demonstrated immense enthusiasm and took part in events like 1,500 meters race, 3 legged race, threading the needle and musical chairs. The lively participation from the staff and the guests provided amusement and enhanced interest in the event.

Attractive prizes were awarded to all frontrunners of the sports events, student volunteers and officials from the Bhutan Amateur Athletics Federation who also extended their full support and used their expertise to help make the Sports Day a great success.  The “Best Female Athlete” was awarded to Ms. Tashi Euden Wangchuk (BA English & Environmental Studies) 1^st year and Ms. Karma Dema (Bachelor of Computer Applications) 2^nd year. Mr. Kuenga Gyeltshen (BA Sociology & Political Science) First Year was declared the “Best Male Athlete”.

RTC will be organizing a series of such events to mark and celebrate the graduation of its second cohort. 

Every year the RTC cricket team participates in the tournament organized by Bhutan Cricket Council Board (BCCB). This year RTC participated in the Twenty20 league organized by BCCB. Skulls, a team comprising of six RTC staff players, also participated.

Both the teams played 4 matches in the league and Skulls managed to win one game whereas RTC failed to secure any win. However, there were some remarkable performances from few players from both the sides.

Tshering Tashi (BA Eng Evs final year student) the ex Cricket National Player cum C level coach scored 86 runs in 56 balls in their 3rd match against Bhutan Telecom on 11/4/2013. In the same match, Thinley Namgay (BCA final year student) took 3 wickets in 4 over. Even though the RTC team lost the game by 3 runs, they gave their best to fight against the team consisting of Bhutan National players.

RTC Faculty Mr. Subhajit Sanyal from the team ‘skulls’ scored 55 runs in 45 balls against the RTC team. Skulls won the match by 9 wickets.

Mr. Suraj and Mr. Budhiman both medium fast bowlers took 3 wickets each against RTC team.

The above mentioned were amongst the highest wicket taker and highest scorer in the first round of the tournament.

RTC will continue to participate in the future tournaments.

RTC had the privilege and honor of welcoming the Hon’ble Chairman of DHI, Lyonpo Om Pradhan on 1^st May, 2013 for an interactive session with students and staff.

Hon’ble Lyonpo shared his experiences and reflections on the development of Bhutan’s economy as well as the key events that have shaped modern Bhutan from the 1960s to DHI. He also advised the students on how to land a job at DHI companies.

Lyonpo talked about the issues Bhutan faced in the 1960’s and how Bhutan is lucky to have visionary monarchs who had left no stones unturned to safeguard Bhutan’s independence, peace, security & stability. He also discussed the various developments that have taken place in the education system, tourism industry, private sectors, health and telecommunications since 1960. Lyonpo emphasized how major issues have been arising from the rural-urban migration trend. However, he stated that the government is trying to stem this trend by developing the rural areas. He also mentioned the various initiatives the government has undertaken to develop public-private sector partnerships and also shared with the audience how DHI functions and its mandates.

Hon’ble Lyonpo is a pre-eminent personality in our nation’s development and has had an insider’s view of the journey that Bhutan has made in the last four decades. This journey has been documented in his recently published book “Bhutan – Roar of the Thunder Dragon”.

It was indeed a wonderful experience for the RTC family to listen and interact with such a distinguished personality.