Dola Banerjee finishes fourth in World Cup archery

Patna, June 12, 2010: Dola Banerjee ended fourth in the women’s individual recurve event of the World Cup archery (Stage II) at Antalya on Friday.

According to information reached here, Dola lost to Victoriya Koval of Ukraine by six points to two in the semifinals in the morning. In the bronze medal play-off, she was beaten by Ksenia Perova of Russia 7-1.

India would return home with the lone gold medal won by the men’s recurve team on Thursday.

Source: Press release from Indian Archery Association

India win gold medal in World Cup archery

Patna, June 10, 2010: India’s fearsome threesome, Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar ensured India took the men’s team recurve gold medal annihilating the United States by 218 points to 214 in the final of the World Cup archery (Stage II) at Antalya on Thursday.

According to information reached here, the Indian troika proved too good for the Americans and maintained the lead throughout in the final to win the first gold medal of the series. India, who reached the final of the Porec World Cup in May, failed to beat Italy and settled for silver.

Brady Ellison, Richard Johnson and Vic Wunderle formed in the US team.

India led by 54 points to 50 in the first end of six arrows to take a commanding four point lead. In the second end of six arrows, however, the Indians surrendered three points (51-54) to enjoy a lead of just a point.

India regained five points lead in the third end of six arrows with Banrejee and Champia hitting bull’s eye twice each to take the score to 57-53. This gave India an overall lead of 162-157. In the final end of six arrows, the Indians scored 56 as against their opponents’ 57 to win the contest at 218-214.

Dola Banerjee will play her semifinal match on in the women’s individual recurve section.

Indian men top field; women finish third

Patna, June 8, 2010: The Indian men’s archery team, consisting of Rahul Banerjee, Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia, topped a strong field in the recurve bow team qualification round of the World Cup archery (Stage II) meet at Antalya on Tuesday. The threesome totalled 2018 points after two rounds of 70m where each archer shot 72 arrows.

According to information received here, the women’s team also finished among the top teams occupying the third position with a total of 1939 points behind China and Russia.

Rahul Banerjee emerged the best Indian archer scoring 679 points to take the second position behind Brady Ellison of the United States (680 points). Talukdar (674) was sixth, Champia (665) was 16th and Tarundeep Rai (662) was 21st.

In the women’s section, Laishram Bombayla Devi took the 12th spot with 650 points. Sixteen-year-old National champion Deepika Kumari (647) was 15th, veteran Dola Banerjee (642) was 20th and Rimil Buruily (623) was a poor 43rd.

In the team elimination round, the Indian men’s team will take on 16th ranked Belarus while the third placed Indian women’s side will meet 14th ranked Turkey in the round of 16.

Source: Press release from Indian Archery Association

World Archery: India out of medal bracket

Kolkata, September 7, 2009:
India’s last hope of picking up a medal in the 45th World archery championship was shattered as China handed India a crushing 221-216 defeat in the quarterfinals of the men’s recurve team event at Ulsan (South Korea) on Monday.

The third-ranked Indian trio of Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar, won the pre-quarterfinals against 11th ranked Malaysia at 217-207. But the sixth-seeded China proved to be a difficult customer. China won the contest 221-216.

China's victory proved in vain as they lost to second-seeded France in the semifinals. China will play Japan, the other losing semifinalists, in the bronze medal play-off. The gold medal will be contested by world champion Korea and France on Tuesday.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

World Archery: Mangal Singh loses in quarterfinals

Kolkata, September 6, 2009:

In another disappointing day at the 45th World archery championship, Mangal Singh Champia raised the hope of a medal but fell in the quarterfinals of the individual recurve event to second seed Lee Chang-Hwan of Korea, 111-114.

The rest of the Indians in this category failed to move past the third round.

According to information reached here, only Rahul Banerjee could reach the third round where he came a cropper against top seed Oh Jin Hyek of Korea, 109-112. Jayanta Talukdar went out in the second round to Yavor Vasilov Hristov of Bulgaria, 108-111.

The senior most archer Dola Banerjee lost to Khatuna Lorig of the U.S. 99-105 and Rimil Buriuly fell to Miki Kanie of Japan 105-108, both in the second round. Pratima Boro and Anneli Preimann of Estonia tied 104-104 at the end of 12-arrow contest. In the one-arrow shoot-off, Anneli won 9-8.

Srither stumbles in pre-quarterfinals

Kolkata: September 5, 2009

National compound men’s champion Chinna Raju Srither lost to top seed Reu Wilde of U.S. at 113-116 in the pre-quarterfinals of the 45th World archery championship at Ulsan in South Korea on Saturday.

According to information reached here, Srither won three rounds with ease. Other two men’s entries, Chungda Sherpa and Kh. Ratan Singh lost in the second round to higher ranked opponents. Sherpa fell to seventh seed Dejan Sitar of Slovakia at 112-116 and Singh was beaten by 29th ranked Dietmar Trillus of Canada at 112-117.

The three Indian women did even worse. Jhano Hansdah lost to much lower ranked Susanna Makkonen of Finland 105-110, Manjudha Soy was beaten by Dorith Landesfeind of Germany in tie-breaker 103 (9) – 103 (10) and S. Jayalakshmi was outplayed by Fatima Agudo of Spain 101-109, all in the first round.

Source: Press release from Indian Archery Association

World archery: Indian recurve men finish 3rd overall

Kolkata, September 4, 2009:

Indian recurve archers began their campaign in a stunning fashion finishing the team qualification round with a third place finish as Koreans set three world records on the third day of the 45th World archery championship at the Ulsan International Archery Field on Friday.

According to information reached here, the Indian trio of Mangal Singh Champia, Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee cobbled together a total of 4006 points to finish behind Korea (4122) and France (4026).

The Korean team’s total of 4122 is the new world record surpassing the earlier record of 4074 also set by Korea in 2003.

Individually, Champia ended seventh overall with a total of 1345. Talukdar was 13th with 1340 and Banerjee was 32nd with 1321 in a field consisted of 115 archers.

Top Korean archer Oh Jin Hyek set two more records on a dramatic day when a lot of big names found the going tough. His individual total of 1386 was better than 1379 set by his compatriot Oh Kyo-Moon in 2000. Jin Hyek also set the record in 90m distance with a total of 342 as against previous best of 337.

Defending world champion Im Dong-Hyun of Korea ended a poor fourth with 1365 and Olympic champion Viktor Ruban of Ukraine was even further at 11th with 1341. Olympic silver medallist Park Kyung Mo failed to make it and bronze medallist Bair Badenov of Russia was placed 12th.

In a field of 16 top teams, India would be seeded third thus they would avoid playing Korea before the final. If form played true, India and second seed France were expected to meet in the semifinals.

In the run-up to the world championship, the same three-member Indian men’s team won two gold and a silver medal in the first three World Cup meets. The trio also gave India the Asian championship team gold medal in 2007 after a gap of 18 years.
Source: Indian Archery Association press release

World archery: Indian recurve women disappoint

Kolkata, September 3, 2009:
Indian archery received another jolt when its recurve women failed to qualify for the team championship of the 45th World archery championship at Ulsan (South Korea) on Thursday.

According to information reached here, the three Indian entries, Rimil Buriuly, Dola Banerjee and Pratima Boro, failed to withstand the big stage pressure and finished at 25th, 41st and 71st places respectively in the individual ranking. Rimil scored 1312 points over four distances – 70m, 60, 50 and 30m. Dola scored 1299 and Pratima managed 1257 points. The trio’s total of 3868 points gave India only 18th place in the qualifying round. Only top 16 teams make it the championship round.

World champion Korea occupied all the top three positions through Ye Ji Kwak (1364), Ok-Hee Yun (1363) and Hyun-Jung Joo (1357) and as a team Korea stood first with 4084 points. China followed second with 3980 and Chinese Taipei was third with 3978.

Defending champion Natalia Valeeva of Italy ended 19th with 1319.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

World archery: Indians begin on a disastrous note

Kolkata, September 2, 2009:
Indian compound archers, nowhere near the world standard, found the going tough in the 45th world archery championship at Ulsan (South Korea) on Wednesday.

According to information received here, Indian men and women teams failed to qualify for the championship round and individual National champion Chinna Raju Srither was the best placed Indian at the 48th place in a field of 111. He scored 1359 points. Jhano Hansdah was the best among Indian women occupying 51st place in a field of 83. Jhano scored 1325 points.

Chungda Sherpa ended 58th with 1356 and Khuraijam Ratan Singh was 93rd with 1332. India’s total of 4047 points earned them the 21st place out of 29 teams. Only top 16 teams make it to the knockout stage. Each archer shot 36 arrows over four distances – 90m, 70, 50 and 30m – for a total of 144 arrows.

Manjudha Soy scored 1313 to take the 62nd place and youngest Indian Sarikonda Jayalakshmi was 83rd and last with a total of 1253. Women compete over four-distance FITA round of 70m 60, 50 and 30m. As a team India finished 21st with 3891 points in a field of 21.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

World Cup archery (Stage IV): India make sad exit

Patna, August 8, 2009
Indian archery hit the depths of despair in the ongoing World Cup archery (Stage IV) at Shanghai on Saturday. After facing the ignominious early exit in the individual section of the recurve division the previous day, the Indian men’s and women’s teams made a quiet departure at the quarterfinal stage bowing to lower ranked opponents, according to information reached here on Saturday.

Having won two gold medals and a silver medal in the earlier three legs, the third-seeded men’s team moved into the quarterfinals with a facile victory over 14th ranked Ukraine 217-207. But the Indian trio of Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar allowed sixth seed Mexico to dominate the proceedings and win a semifinal berth with a 218-210 verdict.

Mexico, however, failed to go past Korea in the semifinals and will play Spain in the bronze medal play-off. Spain lost to France in the other semifinals.

The story in the women’s section also followed the same script except that the protagonists were different. The Indian threesome of Rimil Buriuly, Pratima Boro and Dola Banerjee, seeded third, made short work of 14th ranked Kazakhstan 213-200 but came a cropper against sixth-placed Italy in the quarterfinals 215-219.

Italy eventually lost to Russian Federation and Korea beat China in the semifinals. It will be Korea vs Russian Federation final and China vs Italy bronze medal play-off on Sunday.

India could have gained an unexpected bronze medal but the Indian duo of Rimil Buriuly and Jayanta Talukdar lost to France 138-140 in a closely fought third-place play-off match in the mixed team event. The Indian pair had to first shoot off with Russian team because of a tie in the qualification. Having won the contest and seeded fourth in the four-team event, India lost to Korea 143-153 and moved to the third-place play-off which did not prove lucky.

With this India's campaign in the four-leg World Cup series ended.
Source: Press release from Archery Association of India

Archery World Cup Stage IV: Talukdar qualifies for Copenhagen finals

Kolkata, August 7, 2009
Jayanta Talukdar confirmed his status as No. 1 in the World Cup ranking and qualified for the finals on September 26 at Copenhagen despite an early exit from the World Cup archery (Stage IV) at Shanghai on Friday (August 7). Otherwise, it was a disappointing day for the Indians in the individual recurve section. None made it beyond pre-quarterfinals of a tournament billed as the last competition before the prestigious 45th World Championship coming up in South Korea in early September.

According to information reached here, Talukdar, winner of the second leg of the four-leg World Cup series at Porec, accumulated 45 points to lead two more, Simon Terry of Great Britain (43 points) and Romain Girouille of France (36), in to the finals that promises $ 20,000 as first prize, $10,000 as second prize, $ 5,000 as third prize and $1,000 as fourth prize.

This was the second entry for the Guwahati-born Tata Steel employee in to the finals of World Cup. He had qualified for the 2006 finals where he finished last.

Dola Banerjee was the first Indian to win the prestigious title in 2007 at Dubai.

Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee failed to bury the Korean bogey as Mangal Singh Champia seemed to be struggling with form. The story in the ladies side too was not encouraging. Best ranked Indian Rimil Buriuly lost in the pre-quarterfinals while Dola, increasingly struggling to find form and consistency, fell in the second round. Rookie Pratima Boro and Reena Kumari lost in the opening rounds to complete the Indians’ tale of woe.

Tenth-ranked Talukdar failed to see eye to eye with world champion Im Dong Hyun of Korea and went down 105-114. Seeded 18th Rahul Banerjee fell to second-seeded Korean Lee Chang-Hwan 107-113. Eight-seeded Romain Girouille of France beat 24-th ranked Champia 108-106.

Mariana Avitia of Mexico put out Reena Kumari in the first round at 94-98. Pratima lost to Malgarzata Cwienczek of Poland 101-103, also in the first round. Dola Banerjee was beaten by Aida Roman of Mexico 106-110 in the second and Aida ousted Rimil in the pre-quarterfinals, 106-110.

Source: Press release from Indian Archery Association

World Cup Archery (Stage IV): Rimil, Dola excel as Indian women too finish third

Kolkata, August 6, 2009:
Excellent show by Rimil Buriuly and Dola Banerjee, propelled the Indian women’s recurve team to the third place behind world champion Korea and Russia in the World Cup archery (Stage IV) at Shanghai on Thursday.

According to information reached here, the trio enabled India score a total of 3974 points to be placed behind Korea (4100) and Russian Federation (4007). India will meet 14th-ranked Kazakhstan in the first round of the team elimination on Saturday.

The 18-year-old Rimil from Jamshedpur proved to be the toast of the Indian team. The Tata Archery Academy cadet totalled 1344 points from the FITA round qualification to achieve a sixth rank. Junior international and a team silver medal winner at the 2008 youth world championship in Turkey, Rimil came into the senior side early this year as the fourth member of the Indian side and toured Dominican Republic for the first World Cup.

Rimil shot 334 points over the 70m distance and was surprised to find herself placed second overall behind Korean Yun Ok-Hee (336). The Korean, however, set a world record in the next distance – 60m – with a score of 353 which bettered her compatriot Kim Yu-Mi’s score of 351 set in 2004.

Veteran Dola Banerjee was placed 11th overall with a score of 1331 and the Railway employee emerged the fifth best in the 30m distance with a score of 353. Rookie Pratima Boro was all nerves and failed to live up to her potential and finished 31st with a total of 1299. The fourth member, Reena Kumari, was one place behind with 1298.

FITA round qualifications were held over four distances – 70m, 60, 50 and 30m – with each archer allowed to shoot 36 arrows over each distance for a total of 144 arrows.
Source: Press release from Indian Archery Association.

Archery World Cup (Stage IV) at Shanghai: Inconsistency hits Indian men’s recurve team

Kolkata, August 5, 2009
Indian men’s recurve trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia seems to have hit a mild trough in their form in the World Cup archery (Stage IV) which began at Shanghai (China) on Wednesday.

The Indian team for the first time finished third overall in four World Cup meets and the best individual placing was 10th by Jayanta Talukdar with a total of 1324 points in the FITA qualification round.

The trio gave India a total of 3941 points which placed the country third overall behind Korea (4044) and France (3953). By virtue of the third place, India’s first round opponent in the team event will be Ukraine which finished 14th overall.

Rahul Banerjee finished 18th with a total of 1313 and Champia was placed 24th with 1304 points.

Oh Jin Hyek of Korea topped the individual qualifier with 1366 points. Lee Chang Hwan, also of Korea, was second with 1351 and Chen Wenyuan of China was third with 1338.

Talukdar, who is all set to qualify for the four-man World Cup finals at Copenhagen in Denmark on September 26, had qualified to the meet proper by finishing 12th at Santo Domingo, second at Porec and sixth at Antalya in the previous three meets. Banerjee had ended first, seventh and third respectively while Champia had stood second, sixth and 19th in the previous three tournaments' qualifiers.

In the FITA round qualifier at Shanghai’s Yuan Shen Stadium, Talukdar did badly in the 50m event finishing 42nd (321/360) while occupying fourth (315) in the 90m, eighth (333) in the 70m and sixth (355) in the 30m events. His poor show in the 50m event obviously dragged him down to overall 10th.

Banerjee excelled in the 70m occupying fifth position (335) and seventh in the 50m event (334). He, however, did not measure up in the 90m where he was placed 38th (296) and 40th in 30m (348).

Champia, who was the lone male from India to qualify for the Beijing Olympics, has been slipping in each meet. At Antalya he was 19th overall and at Shanghai he went down further in ranking to 24th. He was 36th in 90m (297), 10th in 70m (333), forty-ninth in 50m (319) and eighth in 30m (355). Had form played true, India would have stayed at second spot in the team standings.

The third place finish in the team event meant the Indian team would be drawn at the bottom half of the draw thus avoiding meeting top seed and favourite Korea before the final.

The Indian men's team had won gold medals at the Santo Domingo and Porec World Cup meets and a silver medal at Antalya.

The four Indian women recurve archers, Rimil Buriuly, Dola Banerjee, Pratima Boro and Reena Kumari, will be seen in action on Thursday (August 6). The first three will form the Indian team. Reena will compete only in the individual event.
India is participating only in recurve section.

Source: Press release from Indian Archery Association

World Cup archery Stage III: Talukdar saves the final day with bronze medal

Patna, June 7, 2009
When it looked beach and breeze would deny India any medal on the final day of the stage III World Cup archery at Antalya, Indian ace Jayanta Talukdar chalked out a bronze medal victory in the individual recurve section on Sunday.

According to information reached here, the sixth-seeded Indian overcame two ends of poor shooting to subdue 24th ranked Italian Amedeo Tonelli 106-101 that enabled India to end the tournament with one silver (men’s recurve team) and two bronze medals (Talukdar and women’s recurve team).

The two Indian giant-killers, Kapil and Rimil Biruly, who eliminated reigning world champions Im Dong Hyun of Korea and Natalia Valeeva of Italy respectively in the earlier rounds of the recurve division, came a cropper in the quarterfinals. Kapil lost to Tonelli 102-108 and Rimil went out to fifth-ranked Ruyu Ouyang of China 104-109.

Talukdar progressed to semifinals by beating 14th seeded Bair Badenov of Russia 109-105 but lost to eventual gold medallist Simon Terry of Great Britain 107-112.

The Indian recurve pair of Rahul Banerjee and Reena Kumari, who made it to the knockout stage of the mixed pair event, lost to the top-seeded Korean pair of Im Dong Hyun and Ji Ye Kwak 130-141 and against lost 140-147 to the Russian pair in the play off for bronze medal.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

World Cup archery Stage III: Indian men recurve team falters at final hurdle; wins silver medal

Patna, June 6, 2009
The Indian men recurve team’s dream run came to an end against the mighty Korean team. The world champion proved a better side in windy conditions to win the gold medal thus denying India from winning the third consecutive gold medal in the stage III of the World Cup archery meet at Antalya on Saturday.

According to information reached here, Korea won the contest 225-221 to relegate India to the silver place.

Indian women did not slip this time as they overpowered Japan 211-201 to win the bronze medal.

Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar had combined to give India gold medal in the previous two World Cups held at Santo Domingo and Porec in the absence of Korea. This trio had won the first world cup team gold at the same venue last year.

On Saturday, the Koreans showed better technique and concentration in windy conditions to reduce the Indians to mere spectators.

Korea established a slender one-point lead in the first end of six arrows (57-57). The lead increased to three points in the next end of six arrows (58-56) for a total of 115-112. Third end produced 56 for Korea and 54 for India and the final end gave Korea 54 and India 55 for a grand total of 225-221. Korea won a team double taking the women’s gold medal as well beating Russian Federation 209-205.

Three more Indians, Kapil, Jayanta Talukdar and Rimil Biruly, are in the quarterfinals of the recurve category individual section to be played on Sunday.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

Archery World Cup Stage III: Great day for Indians

Patna, June 5, 2009
It was a great day for the Indians at the World Cup archery Stage III at Antalya, Turkey, on Friday.

According to information reached here, two youngest members of the contingent, Kapil and Rimil Biruly, annihilated world champions in the individual elimination round and moved into the quarterfinals. The men’s recurve team also moved into the final against Korea. The women’s team lost to Russia in the semifinals and will square off against Japan for the bronze medal.

Adding icing to the cake was Jayanta Talukdar’s progress to the quarterfinals thus keeping alive his chances making it to the World Cup finals at Copenhagen later this year.

Kapil and Rimil, putting behind the poor qualification scores, produced their best performance of their career by beating 2007 Leipzig World Championship winners, Im Dong Hyun of Korea and Natalia Valeeva of Italy respectively. Kapil ousted the top seed in the second round 115-111 for a rarest victory against a Korean. Rimil downed Natalia 108-105.

Talukdar scored his personal best, a world-class, 118 in going past American Brady Ellison who replied with 111.

Other Indians failed to go past the second round in the recurve section. A lot of expected from Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia in the men’s section, Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari and L. Bombayla Devi in the women’s category.

The compound archers, as usual, lost in the early rounds. The men’s team fell to Canada 215-223 while the women went out to Greece 213-217.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

Archery World Cup Stage II: Jayant Talukdar bags recurve gold, makes it a grand double

Patna, May 9, 2009
Jayanta Talukdar won the individual recurve gold medal on Saturday out-shooting Athens Olympic gold medallist Marco Galiazzo of Italy by 110 points to 108 in the final of the archery World Cup Stage II at Porec, Croatia.

According to information reached here, the win enabled Talukdar to win a double gold medal. The first gold of the meet came through the team championship.

Talukdar also won his third head-to-head contest against the Italian all played at Porec. He first tamed Galiazzo in 2006 on way to the gold medal, and again beat him in 2008 and now in the final.
Talukdar held the lead in the first two ends of three arrows each at 55-52.

He surprisingly conceded two points in the third end to allow the Italian to narrow the gap to 81-82. When Galiazzo hit an 8 with his second arrow of the final end of the three arrows, the Indian needed a nine to win. Instead he hit a 10 to take the second crown in Porec.

V.K. Malhotra, president and P.N. Mukherjee, secretary general, Archery Association of India, congratulated the winners.

Source: press release from http://www.indianarchery.info/

Archery World Cup Stage II: India win recurve team gold medal

Patna, May 9, 2009
India’s fearsome threesome of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia, earned India a gold medal in the recurve team event of the archery World Cup Stage II at Porec, Croatia, on Saturday.

According to information reached here, India defeated Russian Federation by 220 points to 218. Italy won the bronze beating China 221-219.

This was the trio’s second consecutive team gold medal after having won the first at the Santo Domingo World Cup Stage I last month. Then India had beaten Great Britain in the final.
After India’s disastrous world championship in 2007, Jayanta, Mangal and Rahul were instrumental in getting India the gold medal at the 15th Asian Championship at Xi’an in China the same year, the gold medal coming after 18 years.

The trio got India first team gold medal in the World Cup series winning at Antalya (Turkey) in 2008. This was followed by two more this year at Santo Domingo and now at Porec.

Russia trailed by one point (54-55) in the first end, but could recover in the second end to tie the match at 108 points at halfway mark.

India could take the lead in the third end with 164-162. Russia showed their best in the last end, but it was not enough to beat the Indians.

The women’s recurve team, however, failed to clinch the bronze medal losing the play-off to Ukraine at 197-212. China beat France 214-200 for the gold medal.

It was pretty good performance in dusty conditions for India as they take the lead in the first end with 53 points against a low 49 points by their opponents. The Indians, however, could not manage the windy conditions as they did in the first end and went on a wayward shooting, 7-9-8-8-9-6, all on the right side of the target. The Ukrainians tied the match at 100 points. Ukraine took the lead in the third end with 154-150.

The last end for India was quite stressful as the last arrow slipped from the arrow rest and five seconds were left on the clock… it landed on the 5 ring. Ukraine confirmed their win with a great 58-point end.

Photo Caption: Indian team (blue) on the podium flanked by Russia (white) and Italy (deep blue) at Porec.
Photo courtesy: http://www.indianarchery.info/

Source: Press release from http://www.indianarchery.info/

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Archery World Cup Stage II – Indian men’s team in final; women to playoff for bronze medal

Patna, May 8, 2009
Continuing the form that fetched the Indian men’s recurve team the gold medal at the World Cup Stage I at Santo Domingo, the threesome of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh put India in line for a gold medal in the Stage II at Porec, Croatia, according to information reached here.

Indian women’s recurve team, consisting of Bombayla Devi, Rimil Buriuly and Dola Banerjee, made it to the bronze medal play off against Ukraine.

Indian men’s outfit had no problem in disposing off Slovakia at 224-193 in the first round and outshot the USA 227-218 in the quarterfinals in a field of 16 teams. The confidence the team had gained from the earlier two victories stood it in good stead against Italy in the semifinals. The contest was far more intense as India had Marco Galiazzo, Talukdar’s final opponent in the individual event.

The Indian trio has been performing exceptionally well for the past two years meant Italy had to bow to India’s superiority at 225-220. India’s final opponent will be Russian Federation on Saturday.

The women’s side, ranked ninth had a tough outing in the first round against eight-ranked Great Britain. The two teams tied at 217-217 before the Indians prevailed in the tie-breaker at 28-23. The win ought to have boosted the morale of the side as India took the top seed Italy apart in the quarterfinals at 217-212.

Like the Indian men, the women failed to consolidate the gains in the semifinals againstfourth-ranked France and lost the tie 206-209.

Source: Indian Archery press release

Archery World Cup stage II: Jayanta Talukdar in men’s recurve individual final

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.

Archery World Cup stage II: Srither, Jhano to the fore

Patna, May 6, 2009
Army man Chinna Raju Srither shot a perfect 360 in the 30m distance of the compound bow section of the archery World Cup stage II at Porec in Croatia on Wednesday. Yet, he finished fifth because four more archers, all scoring 360 points, had more bulls eyes than him. Srither finished 24th overall with a score of 1387 while his closest Indian was Chungda Sherpa at 32nd with a score of 1382. Khuraijam Ratan Singh ended 48th with 1364 while Arjun Rao was 72nd with 1314.

According to information reached here, the Indian men’s team ended overall eight with a total of 4133.

Jhano Hansdah, as usual, was the best among four Indian ladies with ascore of 1382 which earned her 14th rank in the qualifying stage.Namita Yadav with 1364 was 23rd while Bheigyabati Chanu was 27th with1361. Sarikonda Jayalakshmi was 38th with 1346. The Indian women’s team was placed fifth overall with 4107.