Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, November 26, 2024: When the Myanmar Archery Federation decided to hold a beginners’ course in Mindat, Chin State, it changed the life of Kay Thi.
She was 17 at the time and looking for something new after finishing high school and before attending university.
Archery hit the bull’s eye.
Kay took an instant liking to the sport that had come to her hometown and went on to represent her country in seven international competitions over five years. The highlight of her sports career was winning a bronze medal in women’s compound team at the 2005 Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines.
Now, aged 40, Kay is one of the senior members of the archery judges team at the OCA Development Programme for Coaches and Referees from Southeast Asia and East Asia taking place in Kuala Lumpur.
“I was an athlete for five years and stopped in 2007,” she says.
“I wanted to stay involved in the sport so I became a judge. Thanks to that, I have been a judge at seven SEA Games, starting with Laos in 2009, one Asian Games in 2018, one Asian Para Games in Hangzhou last year and the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing in 2014.
“It is nice to come here and meet judges that I have worked with before or who have attended the same course, and it’s also good to see new judges.”
Kay is Secretary General of the Myanmar Archery Federation and has joined the OCA camp as a senior judge in terms of competition experience.
On Tuesday, the second day of the programme, she played a leading role in the tasks set by course instructor Karla Cabrera of the Philippines at a school archery range on the outskirts of the capital.
The judges were split into two groups and had two different jobs: one to measure the detailed layout of the field of play and the other to check the precise measurements inside the target sheet, which is 70m away for archers in the Olympic Games and other senior international events.
“This is a very important part of a judge’s work because the rules must be followed exactly. We have to measure every part of the field of play and prepare the competition arena so that it follows the regulations,” Kay added.
As another judge pointed out, if the measurements are found to be centimeters out of synch, then a potential world record score could not be validated.
Kay is well-known to instructor Cabrera, who was a World Archery international judge from 2006 to 2023 and officiated at three consecutive Olympic Games from London 2012 to Tokyo 2020.
“Kay Thi is very experienced. We have worked together in the SEA Games several times. We go far back,” said Karla, who was awarded the World Archery Outstanding Service Award this year.