Kolkata: A 12-member Indian contingent,
comprising of Olympians Jayanta Talukdar and Dola Banerjee,
would be eyeing some prominent performances when fourth Asian
Grand Prix tournament gets underway at the SAI Eastern Centre
here tomorrow.
Having bagged three golds, one silver and two bronze
medals from World Cup stages, Indians are high on confidence
as they appear overwhelming favourites against the archers
from Bangladesh, Iran, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Singapore,
Hong Kong, Bhutan and Nepal.
As the Asian GP field not so strong, it will also give
the hosts a chance to erase their bitter memories of World
Championship held in Ulsan from September 1-9.
Indians had returned empty-handed from the South Korea
meet.
"Our boys, especially the trio of (Jayanta) Talukdar,
Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia had some good chances.
But the going was tough there and we failed. We all were very
upset about this and hope to do well here this time," Indian
coach Limba Ram told agency.
The former Olympian further said Asian GP here will give
the archers good exposures.
After Asian GP, the next big competition for the Indians
would be Asian Archery Championship to be held in Bali,
Indonesia from November 16-21.
In addition, Talukdar will fight it out in the World Cup
finals in Copenhagen on September 26.
"Talukdar is gearing up for World Cup finals. Good
performance here can certainly boost his confidence ahead of
the Denmark fixture," said Limba.
The Tata Steel archer, Talukdar, is the top seed for
World Cup final where he will battle it out with Simon Terry
of England, Romain Girouille of France and Marco Galiazzo of
Italy.
Having logged maximum points (45) from the four stages of
World Cup, Talukdar hopes Asian GP would give him the match
practice and he would get his rhythm back before leaving for
Denmark.
"Match practice is very crucial and I hope to increase my
level of confidence before the World finals later this month.
I want to take it easy as the field here is not very strong,"
said Talukdar.
The Guwahati-born archer will join Dola Banerjee to
clinch gold in the Champion of Champions leg of the World Cup.
Dola had won in Dubai in 2007, becoming the only Indian
to achieve that feat.
India had bagged one team gold in World Cup Stage-I
(Santo Domnigo); one individual gold (Talukdar) and one men's
recurve team gold in Stage-II (Porec); and one men's recurve
team silver, individual bronze (Talukdar) and women's recurve
bronze in Stage-III (Antalya), but did not get any at Stage-IV
(Shanghai).
India have made three changes to the contingent that took
part in the World Championships in Ulsan.
Pratima Boro has been replaced by Reena Kumari in the
women's recurve section, Namita Yadav in place of Sarikonda
Jayalakshmi in women's compound and Jayantilal Ninama is
preferred over Khuraijam Ratan Singh in the men's compound
section.
It will be a test for compound archers, whose performance
has been below par in terms of international standards.
The competition will begin with ranking rounds tomorrow.
Individual elimination rounds will be held on September
18, while the team and individual finals will be held on
September 19.
Squad:
Recurve: Men: Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal
Singh Champia; Women: Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari and Rimil
Buriuly.
Compound: Men: Raju Srither Chinna, Chungda Sherpa and
Jayantilal Ninama; Women: Jhano Hansdah, Manjudha Soy and
Namita Yadav.
Bureau Report
First Published: Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 18:55