The Hindu : Sport : Nationals from today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 30, 2006

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Sport - Sports : General

Nationals from today

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: Having done exceedingly well in the last two World championships, the Indian archers will set their sights on the year-end Doha Asian Games with optimism. Starting on Monday, the countdown for the Continental Games will begin in right earnest with the commencement of the Senior National championship here at the SAI, Eastern Centre.

The cream of Indian archery, including Tarundeep Rai, Jayant Talukdar, Satyadev Prasad, Rahul Banerjee, Majhi Sawaiyan, Limba Ram (all men), Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari, Laxmi Rani Majhi, Renu and Chekrovolu Swuro (all women) in the recurve section, Vivek Singh, Naresh Damor, C.H. Lenin, Shivnath Nagesia, Chungda Sherpa and Syed Shareefuddin (all men), Jhanu Hansdah, Bansaralin Dhar, Sakro Besra and Manjudha Soy (all women) in the compound section will be the ones to be watched keenly.

Crucial championship

The National championship that will launch India's preparation for the Doha Games will be important, for the Indian squads for the South Asian Federation archery (Dhaka, February 7-12) and the Asian circuit meet (Bangkok, February 14-18) will be named after this championship.

This meet will also enable the Archery Association of India (AAI) to rank competitors for the first National prize money meet scheduled for end February at Jamshedpur. There will be four more such ranking tournament and several international meets before the Indian teams will be named for the Asian Games, said P.N. Mukherjee, senior vice-president of the AAI during a press conference.

The AAI has, for the first time, decided to separate the FITA round and the Indian round of a senior National meet. Kolkata will host the FITA round and Jamshedpur the Indian round.

Competitions will be held over four days. The first day will feature FITA round where men archers will shoot over 90 and 70m while the women will cover 70 and 60m distances, both in recurve and compound sections.

The second day will witness competitions over 50 and 30m distances for all and the first elimination rounds. The third day will decide the individual champions and other places while the final day will see the team championship.

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