Jharkhand girl Deepika wins gold medal in Youth World Archery

Kolkata, July 20, 2009:

Deepika Kumari of India won the cadet recurve women’s gold medal to emerge as the World champion. Sanjay Boro too won the bronze medal play-off to occupy No. 3 position in the cadet recurve men’s event of the 11th Youth World Archery Championship at Ogden (Utah) in the U.S. on Sunday.

This was the second time that India was winning a World title in archery. Palton Hansda won it for the first time in 2006 at Merida (Mexico) by winning the junior compound individual gold medal in the ninth edition of the world championship.

Dola Banerjee had emerged the champion of the World Cup in 2007 but winning the title at the World Championship was the greatest honour for an archer.
Cadet category is for archers under the age of 16 and junior category is for those under the age of 18.

Deepika, a tribal girl from Jharkhand, and a product of Tata Archery Academy at Jamshedpur, was consistent throughout the championship. The fourth-seeded Indian had scored 115 out of 120 in the quarterfinals, 112 in the semifinals and in the final she shot 115 points to beat her 10th ranked Russian opponent Sayana Tsyrempilova, who managed 109, according to information received here on Monday.

To make the day the most productive for the small Indian contingent at the venue, Sanjay Boro from Assam and seeded seventh too showed enough promise early on to win the bronze medal beating 29th ranked Antonio Hector Smith of Mexico 110-105.

In all, the 29-member Indian contingent won one gold and two bronze medals as against two silver medals in 2008 at Kundu-Antalya (Turkey). The Indian contingent had won one gold and three silver medals, by far the best haul, at Merida (Mexico) in 2006.

Deepika was unstoppable since the moment she shot her first arrow into the nine ring. The first end of thee arrows fetched her 29 points, the second end of three also earned her 29. Only in the third she shot two 9s and a 10 for 28 points but by then she had 6 point lead (86-80) going into the last end of three arrows. A 9, 10, 10 by the Indian ensured the historical finish.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

11th Youth World Archery: Indian women win bronze medal

Kolkata, July 19, 2009
India’s cadet compound women’s team, comprising Prerna Bhagat, Nilam Kumari and Sairkonda Jayalakshmi, won a bronze medal on the penultimate day of the 11th Youth World Archery Championship at Ogden (Utah), in the U.S. on Saturday.

According to information reached here, Indians beat Russian Federation 211 (28) – 211 (26) after the two combatants tied at the end of 24 arrows. In the three-arrow shoot off, India managed 28 points to Russia’s 26.

Two other Indian teams, cadet recurve men and cadet compound men, lost to superior opponents, Italy and the USA, 199-215 and 207-229, respectively.

There was strong wind during the cadet women’s compound bronze medal play-off. The two teams tied after the first three arrows. Then Russia took the lead by eight points after six arrows. India managed to come back at 76-76 after one Russian girl shot only a two in the next end. India took the lead over Russia 105-102, 159-155.

The Russians finished with an impressive 58 in their last end of six arrows. This meant India had to shoot at least a nine to win with their last arrow. With only three seconds remaining for the hooter, the last Indian archer managed only an eight to tie the Russian team at 211-211. In the shoot-off, India proved to be the stronger side and claimed the bronze medal.

The American compound cadet boys started strongly with 10-9-10-8-10-10 for 57 points in the first end. The Indians had a big issue with time management. They did not shoot their last arrow and therefore received a zero. Their intermediate score was only 43.

The Americans did not let up with ends of 58, 57, 57. The Indians did shoot well for the remainder of the match with ends of 56, 58 but they could not come back. The U.S.A. won the bronze medal 229-207.

As the wind calmed a bit down for the latter part of the morning session, the Indian cadet recurve boys had the best start and led 56-53 points. They, however, ran into some problems in the second end with only 45 points. Italy took the opportunity with a good 54 to take the lead 107-101, and later on 158-152. The Italians kept shooting strong in the last end with 10-9-10-9-10-9 to clinch the bronze 215-199.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

Archery: Atanu, Seema earn India quota places for 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore

Kolkata, July 18, 2009:
India earned full quota places for the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. India’s Atanu Das and Seema Verma stood second and 13th to grab the 17 places available in each category at Ogden (Utah) in the U.S. on Friday.

The Games’ qualifying tournament offered a maximum of two places, one each in men’s and women’s section, to each country. India fielded all the six junior recurve archers – three in each group – in the qualifier. Recurve bow is the only recognised archery event in Olympics. Quota places are allotted to countries and not to individual archers.

Out of 84 men and 61 women from 42 countries entered the fray, the three Indian men – Atanu Das, Pawan Xalxo and Hemanta Basumatary – did extraordinarily well. Das, who had to bow out in the quarterfinals of the Youth world meet the previous day, provided the silver-lining to India’s Youth Olympic Games’ campaign by moving into the final and ending second best. He lost to Korean Kim Woojin who led 28-24, 57-52, 85-80 and 114-109 to clinch the top place, according to information received here on Saturday.

His compatriots, Xalxo was seventh and Basumatary finished 13th. This meant all the three Indians finished within 17, but as per the rule only one quota place was allotted to India. Seema Verma managed to occupy the 13th place. Her teammates Sumita Kumari (30th) and Balemai Hansda (49th) finished way behind.

Seema eliminated two higher ranked opponents in the first two rounds and moved into top 16 where she lost to end 13th overall. By then she had ensured a berth for India.

Only 10 countries, China, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Chinese Taipei and Ukraine, managed to book full quota places. Seven more countries had one quota either in the men’s or women’s sections respectively.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

11th Youth World Archery: Indian archers in line for one gold and four bronze medals

Kolkata, July 17, 2009

Senior National champion Deepika Kumari was the lone Indian to figure in the final of the cadet recurve women’s event of the 11th Youth World archery championship at Ogden (Utah, US).

India were also in line for four bronze medals in the individual and team events of cadet recurve men and team events of compound men and women.India drew a blank in the junior individual and team sections, according to information received here on Friday.

Deepika, who made it to the quarterfinals, continued her fine run by taking out fifth seed Miranda Leek of U.S. 115-104 before registering one of the finest victories of her fledgling career. The fourth-seeded Indian put out top seed from Korea Jeon Hun Young, 112-108, for a meeting with 10th seed from Russia Sayana Tsyrempilova in the final.

A world record equaling score was needed to subdue Sanjay Boro in the cadet recurve men’s semifinals. The seventh seeded Indian easily won against 18th ranked Turk Osman Eskici 112-101 in the quarterfinals and faced third seed Min Taehong of Korea in the semifinals.

The Korean came up with 117 that equalled Heorhiy Ivanytsky of Ukraine’s world record score set at Kundu/Antalya in 2008. Boro collapsed to 106 to concede defeat. He will challenge 29th ranked Hector Antonio Smith of Mexico for the bronze medal.

Indian cadet men’s team of Sanjay Boro, Mangal Ho and Parashan Nath, seeded fourth, will play sixth-seed Italy in the bronze medal play-off after it lost to top seed Korea 209-224 in the semifinals.

Earlier, India had beaten 13th ranked Finland 215-208 in the pre-quarterfinals and 12th ranked Mexico 213-202 in the quarterfinals.India also figured in the cadet compound men and women team bronze medal play-off matches. The sixth-seeded cadet men’s team of Sudhakar Kumar Paswan, Ritul Chatterjee and Abhyudaya Srinet will take on the top seed the U.S.A.

Earlier, India had beaten third-ranked Russian Federation 223-221 in the quarterfinals after getting a bye in the pre-quarterfinal round. India, however, lost to seventh-ranked Mexico by one point, 226-227, in the semifinals.

The fourth seeded India cadet compound women’s team consisting of Sarikonda Jayalakshmi, Prerna Bhagat and Nilam Kumari will figure in the bronze medal play-off against third seeded Russian Federation. India defeated Australia in the quarterfinals 217-215 but was buried under the world record score of 230 by top seed U.S. 230. India replied with 219.

Fifth and tenth seeds, Atanu Das and Pawan Xalxo, playing in the junior recurve men’s quarterfinals, were eliminated by 13th seed Xing Yu of China (111-113) and second seed Sung Wook Yeong of Korea (108-114).

India’s team campaign in the junior section was nothing short of a disaster. The second-seeded junior recurve men’s team (Das, Xalxo and Hemanta Basumatary) beat 15th ranked Kazakhstan 213-210 in the pre-quarterfinals but went down to seventh-seeded Great Britain 215-221.

The junior women’s team consisting of Balemai Hansda, Seema Verma and Sumita Kumari, ranked a lowly 14th, was beaten by third-seeded Ukraine 184-211.

Though ranked 10th, the junior compound men’s team of Arjun Rao, Sanjay Swansi and Ksh. Nikon Singh were no match to 10th ranked Belgium 219-224 in the pre-quarterfinals. The fifth ranked women’s team too fell in the first hurdle losing to fourth-seeded Italy 212-217.

The fifth-ranked Indian cadet recurve women’s team, with Deepika Kumari, Padyawati Sardar and V. Sharadha in the side, lost to 12-ranked Poland in the first round at 204-209.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release

Youth World archery: Atanu brings cheers in Indian camp

Ogden, Utah (US), July 14, 2009
Indian men’s junior recurve team brought cheers in the Indian camp in an otherwise mixed day for the 29-member Indian team at the 11th Youth World archery championship here on Monday.

Amid the dominating displays by Korea (recurve) and hosts United States (compound) categories of the junior section , Atanu Das of Bengal, now with Tata Archery Academy, stood fifth overall in the individual qualification with a total of 1294 points after each archer shot 36 arrows each over four distances: 90m, 70, 50 and 50m for a total of 144 arrows.

Pawan Xalxo of Jharkhand was placed overall 10th with 1279 while the third Indian Hemanta Basumatary of Assam was 28th with 1249. The three combined to give India a total of 3822 points that earned India a creditable second place in the team qualification ranking behind Korea (4018). The second ranked India will take on 15th ranked Khazakstan in the first round of team elimination.
Korea swept the top three spots. Ukraine, as a team, took the third place behind India.Indian archers, who are expected to do well in recurve bow section, was in for a shock with the junior women falling flat on the face. The three, Balemai Hansda (1224), Seema Verma (1210) and Sumita Kumari (1187), ended 38th, 44th and 53rd respectively. The team total of 3621 gave India the 14th place in a 16-team field. India’s first round opponent will be third placed Ukraine. Korea (4040), China (3950) and Ukraine (3837) were the top three teams.

Indian junior men compound trio of Arjun Rao (1330, 24th), Ksh. Nikon Singh (1317, 31st) and Sanjay Swansi (1313, 34th) earned India an overall seventh postion with a total of 3960 points. The U.S.A. topped the field with 4072. India will play 10th ranked Belgium in the first round.

The junior women compound team seemed to have fared a little better occupying fifth position. But the fact was there were only five teams and India ended last. Priyanshu Kachhap (1297, 21st), Asrita Kerketta (1292, 22nd) and Kiran Majhi (1254, 24th) gave India a total of 3843 points.

Korea completely dominated the Recurve qualifications, taking the first three spots, both in the men’s and women’s divisions. In the Compound Men and Women’s divisions, the United States earned the top spot as a team and in the individual ranking, with Ben Cleland and Samantha Pruitte finishing first.

Recurve Junior Men:

Korean men swept the first three spots of the qualifications. Jang Chaehwan took the lead with 1344 points, followed by his compatriots Sung Wookyeong and Kim Woojin, who scored 1339 and 1335 points respectively to take 2nd and 3rd places. Defending World Junior Champion Luca Melotto of Italy finished 19th.

In the team competition, Korea was unbeatable, taking first place with 4018 points, more than 200 points ahead of the other nations. India held the 2nd-place and Ukraine took 3rd-place. The Australians, who were 3rd after the morning session, fell to 6th. Disappointing performances came from the USA, 12th, Poland (13th), Germany (18th) and especially Russia, only finishing 24th.

Recurve Junior Women:

Once again it was a clean sweep for Korea. Han Gyeonghee (Korea) was brilliant in both the morning and afternoon sessions. She ranked 1st after the long distances and was able increase her lead to 15 points, finishing the qualifications with 1358. Of the two other archers from Korea, Lee Yujin was 2nd with 1343 points and Yu Jangmi 3rd, scoring 1339. Yuliya Zakharchenko (UKR) finished 4th, followed by two Chinese girls, Zhu Jiani and Lu Siyi. These results confirm the Asian and Eastern European countries domination in the Recurve category.

Korea achieved the highest score of all nations with 4040 points, ahead of China and the Ukraine. A surprising result came from the Netherlands who achieved a great result as a team, placing 5th. Disappointing performances came for Italy (12th) , India (14th), Germany (16th) and the United States (17th).

Compound Junior Men:

In this category Ben Cleland (USA), who already had the best score in the long distances, was first in the short distances as well. Francisco Javier Valverde (Spain) placed 2nd, while Puerto Rico’s Jean Pizarro got the 3rd place. Angel Ramirez and Luis Martin Alfaro from Mexico, respectively 2nd and 3rd after the morning session, finished in 6th and 5th place. Overall it was a great performance for the South American countries, who placed 4 athletes in the first 6 individuals.

Mexico confirmed its progression by taking 2nd place in the team ranking behind the United States (3rd place went to Italy).

Compound Junior Women

Samantha Pruittee (USA) continued her qualifications with an impressive display, shooting a total of 1387 points. Her compatriot Kendal Nicely was steady in 2nd place, scoring 1370. Inge Van Caspel (Ned) gave a great performance to finish 3rd, an exceptional result for the Netherlands. Jorina Coetzee from South Africa, who had been 3rd halfway through qualifications, fell to 6th.

Source: Indian Archery Association press release