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Shooting right at their targets

Some excelled, others disappointed. But Cherukuri Volga Memorial Archery contest helped organisers identify the talent pool, says J. R. SHRIDHARAN

PHOTO: CH. VIJAYA BHASKAR

FOCUSSED Ch Lenin is a star attraction in the archery arena

The 27th Cherukuri Volga Memorial Senior National Archery Championship, which concluded here last week, will be remembered for the emergence of a number of young talented archers who claimed their share of limelight. But it also witnessed some big guns, especially star archer Jayant Talukdar, failing to fire. A record 600 archers took part in the tournament in the Indian and FITA rounds.

Making Andhra Pradesh proud was 20-year-old Cherukuri Lenin, a student of SRR & CVR Government College, who won the compound men Olympic round gold medal, leaving Jharkhand's Sumit Mishra behind by just one point. His success came close on the heels of the bronze medal-winning performance recorded by Mangal Singh Champia, who has adopted Vijayawada as his second home, in the recurve team event at the Doha Asian Games.

But the overall performance of AP archers at the meet was dismal, as the host team finished third in the men's team compound segment. Rathian Datta, competition director, said that the number of quality archers was fast increasing and that was the reason why the championship had witnessed several tiebreakers. "Never before we had so many tie-breakers. There are more than a dozen archers who shot better than Jayant Talukdar. The archers have realised that with quality equipment and determination they can win medals in international meets," he observed.

What impressed the administrators of Archery Association of India was the venue - the Siddhartha Medical College grounds - , which was found to be suitable for archery. "The ground is huge and more number of targets can be fixed.

Even international meets can be organised here," AAI secretary-general Anil Kamineni opined.

P.R. Mohan, former chairman of the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh, felt that Vijayawada was turning into a hub for archery activities and suggested that SAAP Archery Academy at Nizamabad be shifted to the city. "After chess, archery is getting more patronage from youngsters in this region. It will be prudent on the part of the SAAP to have the academy at Vijayawada for the growth of the sport."

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