The Hindu : Sport : Gold for Dola

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Sunday, May 08, 2005

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Gold for Dola

Special Correspondent

`It was a fantastic achievement'

Dola Banerjee. — FILE PHOTO: Sushanta Patronobish

KOLKATA: Dola Banerjee outclassed third-seeded Tatyana Dorokhova of Ukraine 102-96 in the women's recurve final to win the first international gold medal for India in archery at the 18th Golden Arrow Grand Prix championship in Turkey on Friday.

Dola had topped the FITA qualifying rounds, and was ranked first going into the individual elimination and final rounds, according to information reaching here.

"It was a fantastic achievement,'' said the secretary general of Archery Association of India (AAI), Anil Kamineni. Speaking from Hyderabad, Anil said: "such great results indicate we are on the right track.''

Senior vice-president of the AAI, P.N. Mukherjee said: "it is a feat that should make India very proud. This is a victory for India in international arena".

In the men's recurve category, Jayant Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee were eliminated in the round of 32 while the eventual champion Baljinima Tsyrempilov of Russia ousted Nanavath Ravindhar in the quarterfinals.

The AP archer first downed 46th ranked Erdem Zhigzhitov of Russia 165-164 in the round of 32 and got the better of third seed Biligto Tsyrempilov of Russia 162-157 in the pre-quarterfinals.

Jayant Talukdar lost to eighth seed Pavlo Bekker of Ukraine 159-161 while Rahul Banerjee went down to fourth seed Pieter Custers of The Netherlands 160-165.

In the compound category, Jhanu Hansdah in the women's and Sanand Mitra in the men's group lost in the second round.

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