The Hindu : Sport / Archery : Indian squad leaves for Turkey

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 10, 2004

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Sport - Archery

Indian squad leaves for Turkey

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, JULY 9. A nine-member Indian archery contingent left for Antalya in Turkey via New Delhi to take part in the 17th Golden Arrow Grand Prix meet. The squad, comprising six archers, two coaches and an official, will begin the campaign of the four-day meet on July 14.

The senior vice-president and the chairman of the technical committee of the Archery Association of India (AAI), Paresh Nath Mukherjee, expressed high hopes of doing well in the tournament, considered to be the last before the Athens Olympics in August.

Among the six members — three men and as many women, only National women's champion Sumangla Sharma of Uttar Pradesh is least experienced in terms of exposure to the senior tournaments. Sumangla, who won the National title at Jamshedpur last year, has been named to represent India in the Olympics on the basis of her performance spread over a period of time pipping seniors like Chekrovolu Swuro and Bhegyabati Chanu for the lone spot. Interestingly, Chekrovolu was one of the key members of the side that booked three Olympic berths at the New York Worlds last July. Experienced Dola Banerjee and Reena Kumari are the other two in the side.

The three-member men's side will be the best possible from the present crop of archers in the country. Satyadev Prasad, Tarundeep Rai and Majhi Sawaiyan, have proved their mettle in no uncertain manner over a period of time and are coming to terms with the world standard as seen from their constantly improving scoreline.

"This GP is going to be a very crucial one for us,'' effused Mr. Mukherjee. "If we are good at Antalya, we are certainly going to be good at Athens. Our aim is to finish as high as possible in the 72-arrow qualification so that we will face easier opponents. This meet will also help us evaluate our archers' performance before the quadrennial showpiece.''

After a shocking display at the first European GP at Rovereto in Italy, which Mr. Mukherjee termed as a `wake-up call', the Indian archers improved almost by 30 per cent at the next Grand Prix at Wyhl in Germany. "Antalya offers us another opportunity to improve by another 30 per cent and reach a peak by the time the Olympics come around,'' he reasoned.

Mr. Mukherjee did not agree that Sumangla could be the weak link of the Indian women's side. The U.P. archer represented the senior side at the Asian Circuit meet at Bangkok in March where she did not perform well. In her last international meet, the Asian juniors, she helped India win the team gold but failed to secure a medal in the individual event. Her teammate Laxmi Majhi annexed a silver medal.

The AAI chairman said Sumangla was troubled by a back problem for some time and could not perform at her best. "Now she is fine and I hope she will deliver the goods,'' he said.

The squad:

Men: Satyadev Prasad (ITBP), Tarundeep Rai and Majhi Sawaiyan (both ASI).

Women: Dola Banerjee and Reena Kumari (both Jharkhand) and Sumangla Sharma (UP).

Captain: P.N. Mukherjee. Coaches: Chae Hong Gig (Korea) and Ivan Yotov Ivanov (Bulgaria).

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