Archery competition begins with new rules

Jamshedpur: Archery competition opened in the 34th National Games at the JRD Tata Sports Complex here

on Monday with the Indian round and changes made in the qualifying and scoring system. For the first time, the Archery Association of India introduced two 50m events as qualifying rounds in place of 50m and 30m distances. This changed the whole gamut of the sport. The AAI also introduced set score system in the Olympic round as practised in modern archery. The only old system remaining in the competition was the 50m distance which saw both the men`s and women`s records being improved. Sunil Oraon of Services accumulated 337 out of 360 points to improve upon the previous record of 322 points by Ajay Damal of Services set at Guwahati in 2007. Similarly, the women`s section also saw a new mark with Anima Basumatary of Assam scoring 319 out of 360, bettering B Lucy Devi`s 2007 mark of 312. The two-round total of 661 by Sanjay Rai of Maharashtra is the new mark for overall score in the men`s section and Anima Basumatary`s 624 points is the new overall record in the women`s category. The men`s team total of 1946 by Services and women`s team total of 1850 points by Assam will be the new records. Konsai Borgayary of Assam will take on A Suraj Singh of Services in the men`s gold medal contest while Rohit Singh of Bihar and N Subhaschandra of Manipur will clash in the bronze medal play-off tomorrow. In the women`s section, K Prabhahimi Devi of Manipur will clash with Jayalaxmi of Jharkhand in the gold medal contest. Meena Kumari of Delhi will challenge Th Ishembi Devi of Manipur in the bronze medal play-off. PTI