The Hindu : Sport / Archery : Dola Banerjee enters final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 07, 2005

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Sport - Archery

Dola Banerjee enters final

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: Dola Banerjee was on the threshold of creating history. She made it to the final of an international archery tournament for the first time in her career. The 24-year-old from Baranagar in the outskirts of Kolkata not only topped the FITA round qualifier to be ranked first among 85 contestants but also carried her form to challenge the third seed from Ukraine, Tatyana Dorokhova, for the gold medal.

The former National champion out shot 32nd ranked Almudena Gillardo of Spain at 166-160 in the round of 32, had the measure of 15th seed Zekiye Keskin Satir of Turkey at 163-159 in the pre-quarterfinals and went past ninth seed Pia Lionetti of Italy at 103-100 in the quarterfinals before ousting fourth seed Tatyana Berezna of Ukraine in the semifinals at 103-98. Dorokhova, a seasoned campaigner from Ukraine, could be a tough nut in the title round to be held later tonight in the 18th Golden Arrow Grand Prix tournament at Antalya in Turkey.

Good form

According to information reaching here, Reena Kumari, Dola's teammate from Jharkhand, where both are part of the Tata Archery Academy, too showed good form. She defeated Siti Sholena of Malaysia at 158-153 in the round of 32 and downed 11th seed Yuliya Lobzenjdze of Ukraine by the narrowest of margins at 156-155. She, however, came a cropper against Dorokhova in the quarterfinals at 102-104.

Three of the brightest young talent in the men's section, Nanavath Ravindhar, National champion Jayant Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee, younger brother of Dola, all moved into the round of 32. Ravindhar went past 51st ranked Matthias Hummel of Germany at 164-154 and would take on 46th ranked Erdem Zhigzhitov of Russia next.

Talukdar, ranked 25th, beat 40th ranked Cheng Chu Sian of Malaysia at 163-153. His pre-quarterfinal opponent would be eighth ranked Pavlo Bekker of Ukraine. Banerjee showed the exit door to Ali Salem of Qatar at 167-159 and would challenge fourth seed Pieter Custers of The Netherlands.

Goutam Singh lost to Alexandr Ljagushev of Belarus at 157-160 while Satyadev Prasad was eliminated by Elias Cuesta of Spain at 157-163. Vishvash lost to Francesco Lunelli of Italy at 153-154, all in the first round.

The picture in the compound section was rather gloomy with fifth seed Jhanu Hansdah losing to 12th seeded Anna Kanzantseva of Russia at 165-166 in the round of 32. In fact, Kanzantseva moved into the final where she would meet compatriot and second seed Oktya Brina Bolotova.

Among the four men, only Sanand Mitra moved into the next round but failed to survive against 14th seed Gerhard Kranabeter of Austria.

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