National Ranking Archery Circuit Tournament: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR NATIONAL RANKING ARCHERY CIRCUIT...

William Tell is perhaps folklore, but several men and women here would well be up to the same challenge. The best archers of the nation are in town this week.

The National Ranking Archery Circuit Tournament will be held from 16th to 19th March at the Lal Bahadur stadium. About 100 top archers from all over the country are participating in this important tournament, which is a platform for selection of four players in each category for the two World Cup events to be held in Korea next month and Italy during May.

This tournament, organised by the Archery Association of India, jointly with the Andhra Pradesh Archery Association, will have competitors fighting it out in the recurve and compound bow divisions. Arjuna Awardees Dola Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai, and Croatia World Cup winner Jayant Talukdar, will compete in the recurve division, while top-ranking Jhanu Hansda will vie for the top honors in the compound division.

Prize money worth Rs. 2 lakhs will be distributed among the winners. The top three archers, based on their total points scored and the final placings, will find a place in the Indian team for the two World Cups in Korea and Italy. The first three days of the tournament will be held in Lal Bahadur stadium, and the final day at the People's Plaza grounds.

Indian archers, of late, have been performing exceedingly well in the international circuits. During the last World Cup, Jayant Talukdar won a gold medal. India also just won their first ever Asian Games Medal, a bronze in the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. Dola Banerjee has earned the distinction of becoming the first Indian woman archer to qualify for the Olympics, by making the mark for the next Athens Olympics.

For further details, please contact Omesh Chandra of the A P Archery Association at 2438-2563.