Patna, May 7, 2009
India’s Jayanta Talukdar is in the threshold of winning his second World Cup gold medal in archery.According to information reached here, the 23-year-old Guwahati-born assistant manager with Tata Steel at Jamshedpur made it to the final in the ongoing World Cup at Porec (Croatia) by winning five rounds in-a-row on Thursday. He will vie for the top honours against 2004 Athens Olympic champion Marco Galiazzo of Italy.
Porec has been a happy hunting ground for Indians. Talukdar began it all in 2006 winning the individual gold medal, the year in which his world ranking rose to No. 2. He figured in the World Cup finals at Mexico but finished last among the four contestants. Last year it was his compatriot Rahul Banerjee who made it to the final at Porec and lost.
Amidst very disappointing results coming from the Indian recurve contingent being coached by Limba Ram, Talukdar’s display so far has been the only silver lining.
Second-seeded Talukdar began with a fluent win against 63rd ranked Brazilian Luis Felipe Paulinyi (113-105), conquered two Chinese, 34th ranked Hai Feng Xue (112-111) in the second round and 18th placed Yu Xing (113-111) in the third round.
Talukdar ousted 10th seed Baljinima Tsyrempilov of Russia (112-110) in the quarterfinals and edged out 46th ranked Jean-Charles Valladont of France (112-111) in the semi-finals. Talukdar’s success was due to his ability to consistently shoot 112 points and above.
While all other Indians lost in the second round, only Rahul Banerjee and Chekrovolu Swuro were eliminated in the pre-quarterfinals. Seventh-ranked Banerjee fell to Tsyrempilov at 110-113, Sophie Dodemont of France eliminated 23rd placed Chekrovolu at 105-104.
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