Top India archers to take part in NRAT

Hyderabad: Top Indian archers, including Olympian Deepika Kumari will be competing in various categories of the Tata National Ranking Archery tournament (NRAT), commencing here tomorrow.

"Top archers of the country including Olympians, World Cuppers and Asian Games medal winners, both in Recurve and Compound division will be participating in the first NRAT of this year, which will be held from February 12 to 19," Anil Kamineni, the Archery Association of India secretary general, told reporters here today.

The tournament will be conducted for both men and women in senior, junior and sub-junior categories at Peoples Plaza here.

The Indian men's trio of Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Sandeep Kumar, who won the gold medal in the compound archery team event at the Incheon Asian Games last year, will be seen in action.

Other Asian Games medallists Tarundeep Rai, Trisha Deb would also take part. Jayanta Talukdar, veteran Bombayala Devi and other archers who participated in the National Games would also be competing in the event.

"The idea behind organising this event is to encourage youngsters to play and give them more exposure," said Kamineni.

He also informed that through this tournament selections will be made for the forthcoming Juniors Asia Cup, to be played in Bangkok.

"This year (2015) is very important as qualification for Olympics will be held. The Youth World championship is scheduled in June in United States while the World Senior championship will be played in July in Denmark," he added.

The winners of the senior category will get cash reward of Rs 25,000 and runners up will get Rs 20,000, while in the junior category the winners will get Rs 15,000 and runners up Rs 12,000 and in the sub-junior category the winners will get Rs 10,000 and runners up will be given Rs 8,000.