Date:13/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/13/stories/2007091355142100.htm

Sport - Archery

Indian men have a job on hand

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: Having failed miserably to earn the Beijing Olympic quota places in archery during the Leipzig World championship, the four-member Indian men’s recurve squad will try to grab at least two slots in the Asian Continental qualification tournament slated for September 20.

The 15th Asian championship at Xi’an, China, will run from September 14 to 21. The Indian contingent, comprising 16 archers and four officials, will leave early on Thursday from here.

The qualification tournament will have only individual tournament for those countries who aspire to book Olympic quota places.

Those who have already booked their Olympic berths will only participate in the Asian championship.

“We are under much less pressure in this format,” Jayanta Talukdar said. “We have been shooting some World-class scores during the three-week camp at Jamshedpur and if we perform to our form, we should be able to wrest two berths,” Mangal Singh Champia said. Rahul Banerjee, who was first in the ranking tournament where the Indian squad was finalised, hoped India would certainly do well. “This team has depth and experience to handle the pressure,” he said.

The three superpowers of Asia, Korea, Chinese Taipei and China as host, have already booked their quota places. Japan and Malaysia have booked two places each and look for one place each.

The squad:

Recurve: Men: Rahul Banerjee (SP), Mangal Singh Champia (Rlys), Jayanta Talukdar (SP), Adonda Raju (SP).

Women: Dola Banerjee (Rlys), Chekrovolu Swuro (MCT), Bombayla Devi (Rlys), Punya Prabha (MCT).

Compound: Men: Isaiah R. Sanam (AP), L. Haridas (SSC), Ratan Kumar (SSC), Palton Hansda (Jha).

Women: Jhanu Hansdah (Jha), Bheigyabati Chanu (Jha), Manjudha Soy (Jha), Ashrita Kerketta (Jha).

Coaches: Lim Chae Woong, Purnima Mahato and B. Srinivas Rao (all Jharkhand). Manager: Sanjeeva Singh (Jha).