Olympians fail trail for Asian championship

Kolkata: In what came as a surprise, the Olympian trio of Dola Banerjee, L Bombyala Devi and V Pranitha

failed the selection trials for the November 16 to 21 Asian Archery Championship in Indonesia but made the cut for the October 21 to 24 Asian Grand Prix in Dhaka. The Archery Association of India (AAI) today named the Indian teams for the fifth Asian Grand Prix and the 16th Asian championship in Bali. The two-day trials were held at the Sports Authority of India, Eastern Centre on October 14 and 15, and saw some fine performances by up and coming archers. The biggest surprise of the trials was the failure of the Dola, Bombayla and Pranitha to make it to the first team for the Asian Championship. The AAI had decided to send the top four to the prestigious Asian meet and the next four to the Asian Grand Prix. Competitions were held in FITA round and over 70m. The 52 archers in four categories (men`s and women`s recurve and men`s and women`s compound) participated in the FITA round where the men shot 36 arrows each over four distances (90m, 70, 50 and 30m) for a total of 144 arrows. The women too shot 36 arrows each (total 144) over four distances (70m, 60, 50 and 30m). At the end of two days of action, youngsters like Atanu Das and Pawan Xalxo (men`s recurve), Belsari Narsary (women`s recurve), Priyanshu Kachhap and Gagandeep Kaur (both women`s compound) came to the fore. Former junior men`s compound world champion Palton Hansda returned to the Indian team after a considerable gap. Reigning cadet girls` world champion Deepika Kumari was unlucky to finish 10th due to equipment breakdown on the first day. The Asian GP squad: Recurve, men: Pawan Xalxo (Steel Plant Sports Board), Tarundeep Rai (Services), Kapil (Chandigarh) and K. Shiva Shankar (Services). Women: Dola Banerjee (Railways), L. Bombayla Devi (Railways), Belsari Narsary (Assam) and V. Pranitha (SPSB). Compound, Men: Chungda Sherpa, Gokul Tamuli, Bijay Rai (all Services) and Amrinder Singh (Punjab). Women: Asrita Kerketta (Jharkhand), S. Jayalakshmi (Maharashtra), Sumanlata Murmu and Priyanshu Kachhap (both Jharkhand). The Asian championship squad: Recurve, Men: Jayanta Talukdar (SPSB), Mangal Singh Champia (Rly), Rahul Banerjee and Atanu Das (both SPSB). Women: Chekrovolu Swuro (Nagaland), Reena Kumari (Railways), Laxmirani Majhi and Rimil Buriuly (both SPSB). Compound, Men: C. Srither (Ser), Isaiah R. Sanam (AP), Kh. Ratan Singh (Ser) and Palton Hansda (Jharkhand). Women: Jhano Hansdah, Namita Yadav, Manjudha Soy (all Jharkhand) and Gagandeep Kaur (Punjab). Bureau Report