Kolkata: India reigned supreme with seven
golds, one silver and three bronze medals as compound archers
stole the show in fourth Asian Grand Prix which concluded at
the SAI Eastern India Complex in Salt Lake on Saturday.
Playing on the home turf, India ruled the roost in the
team events, bagging all the four golds -- men's and women's
recurve and compound -- up for grabs.
Women made up for men's failure in recurve individual
section, making a clean sweep with one gold (Laxmirani Majhi),
one silver (Rimil Buriuly) and one bronze (Dola Banerjee).
Jharkhand girl Laxmirani picked up her first individual
gold in an international meet when she outskilled Rimil
112-109.
"I was lacking in confidence but I hope this achievement
will bring my form on track ahead of the Asian Championships
(later this year) and Commonwealth Games (2010)," the
21-year-old, who represents Tata, said.
Olympian Dola prevailed over Pratima Boro 102-93 to
settle for bronze medal that saw India rule the roost in the
women's recurve section.
India completed their dominance, bagging two individual
golds (Chungda Sherpa and Manjudha Soy) and two silvers (C
Srither and Namita Yadav) in the men's and women's compound
sections.
Sherpa beat Ali Majazida of Iran 115-110 en route to his
gold medal, while Srither thrashed Tim Keppie of Scotland
116-104 for the bronze in the men's compound.
In a tight contest, Manjudha edged out Tracy McGown of
Scotland 110-109 for the gold, while Namita beat Beigyawati
Chanu 110-105 in an all-Indian bronze play-off in the women's
compound.
Mohammad Sajjad Hossain made history for Bangladesh,
bagging the country's first ever gold in a Grand Prix meet in
the men's recurve seciton.
The 24-year-old, who works for Bangladesh Ansar and
Village Defence Party, a paramilitary organisation, beat
wheel-chair bound Ebrahim Ranjbar of Iran 105-101 to make
history for Bangladesh which picked up the sport as late as
2005.
An unassuming Hossain gave full credit to Indian coach
Nisith Das who left Kolkata and developed archery at
grassroots level about five years back.
"It's all his effort that is bearing fruit now. We have
talent and hopefully the government will encourage the sport
in a better way. We will see many more medals in the days to
come," said Hossain.
For 39-year-old Iranian, who settled for the silver, it
was a sad story after all.
An ex-serviceman, Ebrahim had to be confined to a
wheelchair after he met with a tragedy in the Iran-Iraq war
some 23 years ago.
Bureau Report
First Published: Saturday, September 19, 2009, 19:58