Archery Association wants zonal championship

Jamshedpur: Archery Association of India (AAI) is contemplating starting a zonal championship on the lines of National Ranking Archery Tournament from this year- end to provide more exposure to the archers.

"We are planning to launch a zonal level championship to provide more competition for the archers," said Anil Kamineni, secretary general of AAI. Kamineni told newsmen that the discussions in this regard were on. He denied that the number of tournaments in the country has come down. Referring to the forthcoming World Cup Stage I to be held in Shanghai, China from May 13, he said all the top four archers in men and women`s recurve and compound of the 2nd National Ranking Archery Tournament will take part in the Stage I and II World Cup. The stage II World Cup was scheduled to be held in Antalaya, Turkey in June. He said India team for the Stage III and IV will be picked up based on the performance of the archers at the 3rd National Ranking Archery Tournament to be held in Delhi in June. The AAI official said the national camp for the men and women recurve team will be held in Pune while suitable location for the compound archers was being identified keeping the summer heat in mind. Top twelve recurve archers from men and women, eight junior archers and four sub-junior archers have been attending the national camp at Pune, he said. The Junior and Sub-Junior archers were included in the camp in view of the forthcoming Youth Archer Championship to be held in China. On whether AAI has any plan to provide international exposure to the Indian archers ahead of the Asian Games next year, Kamineni said there was sufficient numbers of international meets including four stages of World Cup and Asian Grand Prix. Besides, World Championship in October in Antalya (Turkey) and World Youth Archery championship was also slated for the games, he said adding that the Youth Archery Championship was to be hosted in China. When asked about the de-recognition of AAI by the Union Sports Ministry, Kamineni said AAI has been delivering good and the Indian team under the present arrangement has been performing good. "We are among the top five teams of the world," he claimed adding that there was no need to derecognise the body as the election of the AAI was held democratically. Kamineni, however, said AAI was discussing the issue with the government to sort out the issue. PTI