Deepika shines in London

London, July 27, 2012:  Deepika Kumari finished eighth overall with 662 points and helped the women’s team finish ninth (1938 points) in the team ranking in the afternoon session of the archery competition of the 30th Olympics.

The women’s recurve event, like the men’s section, was dominated by Korea as Bo Bae Ki and Sung Jin Lee totalled 671 respectively. Chinese Taipei’s Ya-Ting Tan also logged with 671.

Deepika recovered from an ordinary round with first 36 arrows to score 327 that gave her 18th position overall. But the 18-year-old was in her true self scoring 335 in the second 36 arrows. This score was the second best for the round.

Laishram Bombayla Devi finished 22nd overall with 650 and Chekrovolu Swuro was 50th with 625. In the team event, Korea was on top with 1993 points followed by the US and Chinese Taipei at 1979 and 1976. India’s first round opponent Denmark finished eighth with 1946.

No. 2 in the world, India will clash with Korea in the quarterfinals if it got the better of Denmark. World No. 1 Italy ended 10th, one slot behind India with 1937.

Individually, Deepika’s first round opponent is likely to be Amy Oliver of Great Britain and Bombayla may face Evangelia Psarra of Greece. Chekrovolu Swuro is likely to draw Jennifer Nichols of the US.


Indian Archery Association Press release

India in tough group with Korea, US

London, July 27, 2012: The Indian men team’s fate in the Olympic archery event is almost sealed as it is clubbed in the top half along with defending Olympic champion Korea and World No. 1 team, the US in the team elimination round that will get underway at Lord’s on Saturday.

India’s first match will be against Asian rival Japan and the winner will come up against the US in the quarterfinals. Ukraine and Great Britain will clash in a pre-quarterfinal match and the winner will have the envious task of meeting Korea in the quarterfinals.

If form plays true, Korea and the US will clash in the semifinals.
The competition in the bottom half looks pretty open with third ranked China and second ranked France getting bye into the quarterfinals. The winner of the match between Chinese Taipei and Italy will take on China in the quarterfinals as Mexico-Malaysia winner will play France for a place in the semifinals.

The second semifinal is likely to pit favourites China and France.

Indian Archery Association Press release

Indian men archers disappoint on the opening day

London, July 27, 2012: Indian archery hit a new low on the opening day of the 30th Olympic Games archery competition at Lord’s when the men’s team of Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar, finished a shocking 12 out of 12 teams in the ranking round held in the morning.

On a day when the defending champion Korea stamped its class by establishing two world records and Olympic records for the team and individual totals, the three Indians bite the dust with a shocking display to plunge India’s campaign into disarray.

India, ranked third in world, totalled a pathetic 1969 points that gave it only the last spot. The top four finishers, Korea, France, China and the US, will all get a bye into the quarterfinals. India will be pitted against fifth-ranked Japan in the pre-quarterfinals which will be a repeat of the Ogden Olympic qualifying final match where India lost to Japan.

Individually, Rai was the best placed Indian at 31st spot with a total of 664. Banerjee was 46th with 655 and Talukdar was 53rd with 650. In the elimination round, Rai will play 34th ranked Juan Carlos Stevens of Cuba in the first round while Banerjee will take on 19th ranked Jantsan Gantugs of Mongolia. Talukdar has the toughest draw meeting 12th ranked Jacob Wukie of the US.

The Korean trio of Im Dong Hyun, Kim Bubmin and Oh Jin Hyek totalled 2087 points to established a new world record and Olympic record. The previous world record was 2069 by Korea at Antalya World Cup earlier this year and the Olympic record stood at 2031 by Korea set at Atlanta in 1996.

Im Dong Hyun’s individual score of 699 bettered his own world record of 696 set at Antalya earlier this year and the Olympic record stood at 684 points set by Michele Frangilli of Italy in 1996.

World No. 1 archer American Brady Ellison of the US finished 10th with a score of 676.

The men’s team elimination and the final will be gone through on Saturday with the first medal being awarded in this discipline.

Indian Archery Association Press release

Deepika Kumari wins first World Cup title

KOLKATA, May 5, 2012: India's Deepika Kumari, won her first World Cup individual recurve gold medal today at Antalya. She beat Korea's Lee Sung Jin by six set points to four in the final.

Deepika won the second set (29-27), third (27-26) and the fifth set (28-27) after losing the first (27-30) and the third (27-29).

Deepika is the current junior World champion and a gold medallist at the Delhi Commonwealth Games. She had also won the Cadet World Title in 2009.

Press release

Indian men's recurve team reaches final

Kolkata, May 4, 2012: The Indian men’s recurve team, comprising Rahul Banerjee, Jayanta Talukdar and Tarundeep Rai, sailed into the final of the team event of the World Cup archery Stage 2 at Antalya in Turkey today..

The team defeated Korea 225-224 points in the semifinals. the team will play Great Britain in the final tomorrow. The Indian men beat the Netherlands in the quarterfinals at 216-215 and Mexico in the pre-quarterfinals at 217-215.

The women’s team, consisting of L. Bombayla Devi, Chekrovolu Swuro and Deepika Kumari, went down to Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals at 210-223. India won the opening round against Ukraine 221-216.

Both the Indian compound teams lost in the quarterfinals. The men went down to the US 232-234 while the women lost to Italy 223-232.

Press release

India recurve teams lose in final of Asian GP archery

Kolkata, February 19, 2012: For a change, the Indian compound archers outshine their recurve counterparts in an international archery championship.

The men’s compound team (Rajat Chauhan, Ritul Chatterjee and Ch. Jignas) made a clean sweep by winning the men’s team final defeating Hong Kong by 224-211 points. Earlier, India’s Jignas won the individual and Rajat and Jhano Hansdah took the mixed team gold medals. India won against Korea 236-224 in the semifinals, according to information received here.

The compound women’s team (Jhano Hansdah, Gagandeep Kaur and Manjudha Soy) lost to the eventual winner Thailand in the semifinals at 217-221. The Indians went on to win the bronze medal out-shooting Hong Kong at 227-215.

India’s full strength recurve teams came a cropper in the final of the men’s and women’s team events.

Deepika Kumari, Chekrovolu Swuro and L. Bombayla Devi, who will be representing India in the women’s recurve event at the London Olympics, suffered a defeat at the hands of China by 211-213 points. Incidentally, this Chinese team is not the National side but a regional team from Shanghai!
Japan took the bronze medal getting the better of France at 210-202 in the third place play-off.

The Indians beat Japan in the semifinals at 217-213 while China outplayed France at 217-209.

The new-look Indian men’s recurve side, comprising Jayanta Talukdar, Mangal Singh Champia and Thupuvoyi Swuro, won easily against Japan in the semifinals at 222-219 but found France a tough team to down in the final. The Indian lost 217-218. Korea took the bronze medal beating Japan 223-215.  
   
India ended the championship on a high making a rich haul of four gold, five silver and two bronze medals to rank No. 1 in the medal tally.

The compound team contributed three gold medals. The fourth gold was won by the mixed recurve team.

Ch. Jignas and Rajat Chauhan became the two Indians to win two gold medals in this championship. Jignas added the team gold to the individual he won earlier while Rajat added his team gold to the mixed team gold he had won on Saturday.

A Press release

India add two more gold to their kitty

Kolkata, February 18, 2012: India won both the mixed team gold medals in the first Asian Grand Prix archery tournament in Bangkok today. The Indian mixed recurve team of Jayanta Talukdar and Laishram Bombayla Devi took gold beating the Japanese team at 143-142 in the final.

Rajat Chauhan and Jhano Hansdah combined well to give India the mixed compound team gold ahead of Myanmar by winning at 151-148, according to information received here.

The two gold medals inflated India’s medal haul to three gold, three silver and a bronze on the penultimate day. All the team finals will be held tomorrow.

Fourth seeded Indian recurve pair had it easy against France in the semifinals winning the contest at 148-142. In the other semifinals, Japan defeated Malaysia at 148-139.

In the compound section, India stopped Malaysia in the semifinals at 148-143 while Myanmar ousted Vietnam at 147-143 on way to final.

The mixed pair contest, introduced a year ago, teams two best archers in the men and women section of each country on the basis of points earned in ranking round. Top 16 pairs qualify for the mixed team events in both recurve and compound.

A Press release

India win five medals in Asian GP archery

Kolkata, February 18, 2012: India won a rich haul of one gold, three silver and a bronze medal in the individual section of the first Asian Grand Prix archery tournament at Bangkok today.

Two teenage sensations, Chittibomma Jignas and National champion Rajat Chauhan, combined to give India 1-2 in the men’s compound event. In an all-Indian final, the 18-year-old AP-born Services’ archer subdued Chauhan in the tie-breaker after the two tied the score at 144-144. Both hit the bull’s eye but Jignas’ arrow found to be closer to the centre to give him the second International gold after he won silver at the third Asian Grand Prix at Dhaka last May.

It was a remarkable show by Chauhan of Rajasthan. In his first international assignment, he reached the final apart from emerging the National champion in the all the three age groups: sub-junior, junior and senior in the same year.

It could have been a clean sweep by the Indians had Ritul Chatterjee not lost the bronze medal battle against Nguyen Tien Cuong of Vietnam at 143-147.

India’s quest to win the most coveted events of all, the recurve division, did not come off. India’s two final entries, Mangal Singh Champia and Chekrovolu Swuro, have not done well in individual events over the years. That they managed to win silver medals was indeed praiseworthy.

In the semifinals, Chauhan ousted Nguyen at 149-147 and Jignas eliminated compatriot Ritul Chatterjee 147-143.

Champia came up against a vastly experienced Romain Girouille of France in the men’s recurve final where the two shared the five sets to tie the score at 5-5. In the one-arrow tie-breaker, the Frenchman shot a nine to the Indian eight in a touch and go contest.

Earlier, Champia won against Spain’s Elias Cuesta by 7-3 set points in the semifinals.

Chekrovolu, who held an upper hand in the women’s recurve final against Ren Hayakawa of Japan, erred at the beginning of the third set. After taking the first two sets and a commanding 4-0 set points, the Indian needed just one more set to win the gold medal. Chekrovolu’s first arrow of the third set hit the seven point ring which completely unnerved the Indian.

Ren shot a 10 and a nine to take the set. Chekrovolu cracked in the fourth set shooting 8,9,9 to her opponent’s 10,8,10. The deciding set was a touch and go affair with the confident Japanese winning it in the end.

Chekrovolu edged past Urangungalag Bishindee of Mongolia in the tie-break after both shared the five sets to tie the set score at 5-5. In the tie-breaker, the Indian’s bull’s eye found to be closer to the centre than the Mongolian’s shot.

Both the Indian entries in the women’s compound semifinals, Jhano Hansdah and Gagandeep Kaur, were beaten on way to the final. Jhano lost to ultimate gold medal winner Aung Ngeain of Myanmar 142-145 and Gagandeep fell to silver medallist Nurfatehah Mat Salleh Fatin of Malaysia at 141-143. In the battle for bronze, Jhano prevailed over her much younger opponent in the tie-breaker after both tied the score at 139-139. Jhano got a bull’s eye to Gagandeep’s 8.

A Press release

Seven Indians make it to semifinals in Asian Grand Prix archery

Kolkata, February 17, 2012: Seven Indian archers have entered the individual semifinals of different categories of the first Asian Grand Prix at Bangkok today.

Mangal Singh Champia, who is more known as a strong archer in team events, made it to the individual semifinals after 2007, and will play Spain’s Elisa Cuesta for a place in the men’s recurve final. Another team player, Chekrovolu Swuro will take on Bishindee Urangungalay of Mongolia in the women’s recurve semifinals.

Three Indian compound archers moved into the last four stage. National champion Rajat Chauhan will take on Nguyen Tien Cuong of Vietnam and Ch. Jignas and Ritul Chatterjee will play each other in semifinals. If Chauhan managed to prevail over the Vietnamese, it could be 1-2-3 for India for the first time at a Continental meet.

In the women’s compound section, veteran Jhano Hansdah and young Gagandeep Kaur will meet Ngeain Aung of Myanmar and Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh of Malaysia respectively.

All the semifinals and the finals of the individual sections will be played tomorrow.

The rest of the Indians failed to go past the quarterfinals stage.

Former compound men’s National champion Chinna Raju Srither was the lone Indian to lose in quarterfinals.

The draw of luck pitted World Junior Champion Deepika Kumari and Chekrovolu Swuro in the pre-quarterfinals where the older Indian triumphed.

Two other Indian women recurve archers, L. Bombayla Devi and Rimil Buriuly, too were eliminated in the pre-quarterfianls.

Manjudha Soy and debutante Parveena went out of contention in the women’s compound individual section in the last 16 stage.


A Press release

Indian archery teams named for Asian GP, Asian championships

Kolkata, October 16, 2009:
Archery Association of India (AAI) on Friday named the Indian teams for the fifth Asian Grand Prix at Dhaka from October 21 to 24 and for the 16th Asian championship at Bali (Indonesia) from November 16-21.

The two-day trials held at the Sports Authority of India, Eastern Centre on October 14 and 15, saw some fine performances by up and coming archers. The biggest surprise of the trials was the failure of the three women Beijing Olympians, Dola Banerjee, Laishram Bombayla Devi and V. Pranitha to make it to the first team for the Asian championship.

The AAI had decided to send the top four to the prestigious Asian meet and the next four to the Asian Grand Prix.

Competitions were held in FITA round and over 70m. The 52 archers in four categories (men’s and women’s recurve and men’s and women’s compound) participated in the FITA round where the men shot 36 arrows each over four distances: 90m, 70, 50 and 30m, for a total of 144 arrows. The women too shot 36 arrows each (total 144) over four distances: 70m, 60, 50 and 30m.

The next day the archers shot 36 arrows four times over 70m distance for a total of 144 arrows. The two totals were combined and the ranking finalised in a most transparent manner to the satisfaction of all archers.

At the end of two days of action, youngsters like Atanu Das and Pawan Xalxo (men’s recurve), Belsari Narsary (women’s recurve), Priyanshu Kachhap and Gagandeep Kaur (both women’s compound) came to the fore giving Indian archery a terrific fillip.

Former junior men’s compound world champion (2006) Palton Hansda returned to the Indian team after a considerable gap. Reigning cadet girls’ world champion Deepika Kumari was unlucky to finish 10 due to equipment breakdown on the first day. Deepika, who is being groomed for the 2012 London Olympics, was the most impressive among the youngsters, according to coaches who attended the trials.

The return of Chekrovolu Swuro of Nagaland to the Indian team for the Asian meet was being seen as the resurgence of the old guard. With the form of veteran Dola Banerjee dipping by the day, the women’s recurve team needed an experienced hand to lead the charge. Chekrovolu and Bombayla spent considerable time in Korea recently.

Talukdar too seemed to have regained his rhythm going by the scores he achieved during the trials. Rimil Buriuly’s fourth place finish was a cause for worry as she would not be participating in the team championship.

The Asian GP squad:
Recurve, men: Pawan Xalxo (Steel Plant Sports Board), Tarundeep Rai (Services), Kapil (Chandigarh) and K. Shiva Shankar (Services).
Women: Dola Banerjee (Railways), L. Bombayla Devi (Railways), Belsari Narsary (Assam) and V. Pranitha (SPSB).
Compound, men: Chungda Sherpa, Gokul Tamuli, Bijay Rai (all Services) and Amrinder Singh (Punjab).
Women: Asrita Kerketta (Jharkhand), S. Jayalakshmi (Maharashtra), Sumanlata Murmu and Priyanshu Kachhap (both Jharkhand).

The Asian championship squad:
Recurve, men: Jayanta Talukdar (SPSB), Mangal Singh Champia (Rly), Rahul Banerjee and Atanu Das (both SPSB).
Women. Chekrovolu Swuro (Nagaland), Reena Kumari (Railways), Laxmirani Majhi and Rimil Buriuly (both SPSB).
Compound, men: C. Srither (Ser), Isaiah R. Sanam (AP), Kh. Ratan Singh (Ser) and Palton Hansda (Jharkhand).
Women: Jhano Hansdah, Namita Yadav, Manjudha Soy (all Jharkhand) and Gagandeep Kaur (Punjab).

Source: Press release from Indian Archery Association

2nd Asian Grand Prix archery: India win 3 gold, 4 silver medals

Kolkata, May 25, 2009
Indian won three gold and four silver medals at the second Asian Grand Prix archery meet at Tehran on Saturday.

According to information received here on Monday, the men’s recurve team of Tarundeep Rai, Muni Ram Tirkey and Kapil, won the gold medal beating Iran 217-211 in the final. Punya Prabha, V. Pranitha and Reena Kumari brought out the best in the women’s recurve team final defeating Iran 198-194 in the final.

Compound archer L. Haridas Singh earned India the third gold medal in the individual event when he annihilated Hungary’s Robert Bojti in the tie breaker after the two tied 109-109 in the final. Singh shot a 10 as against Bojti’s 9 in the tie-breaker.

However, the men and women compound teams lost to Iran in the final. The men lost 220-227 and the women went down 207-208. Olympian Tarundeep Rai, perhaps the most experienced in the field, could get only a silver medal losing to Iran’s Milad Vaziri Teymoorlooei at 107-108 in the men’s recurve individual event final.

Compound women archer Sweety Kumari too failed in the final going down to Seyedeh Vida Halimian Avval of Iran 102-108 to settle for silver.

Tirkey and Sushma (both individual recurve) lost to Nadar M. and Zahara Nemati of Iran respectively in the bronze medal play-off. All other medals went to host Iran which emerged the best in the four-day tournament attended by six nations and 60 archers.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

2nd Asian Grand Prix archery: Five Indians in medal round

Patna, May 23, 2009
Five Indians made it to the medal round in the individual section of the second Asian Grand Prix archery tournament at Tehran on Friday. Three Indians, Tarundeep Rai (men’s recurve), L. Haridas Singh (men’s compound) and Sweety Kumari (women’s compound) moved into the final while two, Muni Ram Tirkey (men’s recurve) and Sushma (women’s recurve) reached the bronze medal play-off.

Tarundeep Rai, seeded second, will take on fourth seed Milad Vaziri Teymoorlooei of Iran for the gold medal. The Indian army archer, who missed the individual bronze medal by a whisker in the 2005 Madrid World Championship, showed enough touch and class in this meet. He had the scores of 109, 106 and 106 in the three rounds he played so far and would look to avenge his compatriot Muni Ram Tirkey’s defeat in the semifinals in the hands of Milad.

The Iranian had defeated top seed Muni Ram Tirkey in the semifinals 109-106. The semifinal loss pushed Tirkey against sixth seed Nadar M. of Iran in the bronze medal play-off. The other two, Kapil and K. Shiv Shankar, lost in the quarterfinals.

Fifth-seeded Indian L. Haridas Singh will come up against third seed Hungarian Robert Bojti in the men’s compound division final. Singh scored 116 in the first round, 112 in the second and in the semifinals he downed top seed Hamzeh Nekooi of Iran 109-107.

The other Indians, L. Chinglensana Luwang (seed No. 2), Amrinder Singh (eighth seed) and Arun Sharma (11th) were eliminated early.

Sweety Kumari was the best among four Indian women compound archers. She ensured a place in the final against second seed Seyedeh Vida Halimian Avval of Iran. The other three disappointed with miserable display with Manjudha Soy (2nd seed) losing to Leila Sakhaeifar of Iran in the quarterfinals 102-108 while Vrushali Gorle lost to Sweety at the same stage 99-104. Sakro Besra lost to the second seed also in the quarterfinals at 100-111.

Sushma, the sixth-seeded Indian reached the women’s recurve semifinals where she lost to ninth ranked Farideh Mirzaei of Iran 91-95. Sushma will play 10th seed Zahara Nemati of Iran for the bronze medal. Reena Kumari (top seed), Olympian V. Pranitha (second seed) and Punya Prabha (third seed) all lost in the second round.
Source: Press release from www.indianarchery.info

2nd Asian Grand Prix archery: Indians dominate qualifying round

Patna, May 21, 2009
The 16-member Indian archery contingent made a clean sweep by occupying the top positions in all the four categories – Recurve men and women and Compound men and women – on the opening day of the second Asian Grand Prix archery tournament at Tehran on Wednesday.

According to a press release of the Indian Archery Association, the Indian men’s recurve team, comprising MR. Tirkey, Tarundeep Rai and Kapil totalled 1967 points to take the first place after competitions were held in two 70m distances as qualifying round in which each archer had to shoot 36 arrows over 70m twice for a total of 720 points.

Tirkey’s 659 points was the best among Indians and was followed by Rai (658) and Kapil (650). Fourth member K. Shivshankar scored 614.

The Indian trio of Reena Kumari (641), V. Pranitha (619) and Punya Prabha (613) helped the Indian women team to reach 1873 point which gave it the top spot. The fourth member Sushma came up with 600 points.

In the men’s compound section, M. Chinglensana Luwang (686), L. Haridas Singh (683) and Amrinder Singh (674) enabled India top with 2043 points. Fourth member Arun Sharma scored 662.

In the women’s section, Manjudha Soy (658), Vrushali Gorle (638) and Sakro Besra (637), who formed the team, enabled India take the top spot with 1933 points. Sweety Kumari, who was the fourth member, scored 656.

Archers from six countries, host Iran, Iraq, India, Syria, Bangladesh, Nepal and Hungary are in the competition of the four-day meet. This is the second of the five Grand Prix series planned by the Asian Archery Federation. New Delhi is set to host the fourth of the series in September.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

Four changes in Indian archery team for World Cup stage III

Patna, May 12, 2009
The Archery Association of India (AAI) made four changes in the 16-member Indian contingent which will participate in the World Cup stage III at Antalya in Turkey from June 2 to 7.

The four, Viswash, Chekrovolu Swuro (both recurve), Arjun Rao and S. Jayalakshmi (both compound) have been replaced by Kapil, Reena Kumari, M. Chinglensana and Vrushali Gorle respectively, according to Mr. P.N. Mukherjee, secretary general, Archery Association of India (AAI).

Indian archers had won three gold medals and two bronze medals from the two World Cup meets held so far.

Team:
Recurve (men): Rahul Banerjee, Jayanta Talukdar (both Steel Plant), Mangal Singh Champia (Railways) and Kapil (Chandigarh).
Women: L. Bombayla Devi, Dola Banerjee and Reena Kumar (all Railways) and Rimil Biruily (Steel Plant).
Compound (Men): C. Srither, Chungda Sherpa, Kh. Ratan Singh and M. Chinglensana Luwang (all Services).
Women: Jhanu Hansda, Bheigyabati Chanu, Namita Yadav (all Jharkhand) and Vrushali Gorle (Maharashtra).

The AAI also announced the Indian team for the second Asian Grand Prix to be held in Tehran from May 18 to 23.

Team:
Recurve (men): Kapil (Chandigarh), Tarundeep Rai, Muni Ram Tirkey and K. Shivshankar (all Services).
Women: Punya Prabha (UP), Sushma, Reena Kumari (both Rly) and V. Pranitha (Steel Plant). Compound (men): L. Haridas Singh, M. Chinglensana Luwang, Arun Sharma (all Services) and Amrinder Singh (Punjab).
Women: Sakro Besra (Rly), Vrushali Gorle (Mah), Manjudha Soy and Sweety Kumari (both Jharkhand).