Brother-sister archer duo feel proud to represent country

Dola and Rahul Banerjee have said that they were immensely proud to represent the country together and hoped their best would come in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

Kolkata: The brother-sister duo of Dola and Rahul Banerjee, regular members of the Indian archery side for close to six years, have said that they were immensely proud to represent the country together and hoped their best would come in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

The Indian men`s recurve trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul recently won the World Cup Stage IV gold in Shanghai with a record 224 score, highest so far by the men`s side. The women`s team of Dola, Deepika Kumari and Laishram Bombayla Devi, which had won silver in the World Cup Stage III at Ogden (USA), bowed out in the initial round.However, Rahul`s elder sister Dola made the cut for the World Cup final to be held in Edinburgh on September 18-19. "It is a great feeling. It gives us immense pride that we both are in the top group of Indian archers. It`s a big achievement," Dola, who had won the World Cup final in 2007, told reporters in an interview. "Rahul has matured a lot. Obviously, he along with Jayanta (Talukdar), Mangal (Singh Champia) and Tarundeep (Rai), is there in the top tier for sometime now. They understand their responsibility and are living up to it winning medals at regular intervals," she said.Way back in 1996 when Dola was practising at Baranagar Archery Club, Rahul, six years junior, would watch her shoot at the bull`s eye from the long range. Rahul was learning karate at that time while Dola had already made herself an integral part of the national team. Dola said that she gradually brought her brother to archery. PTI