Top archers to be in action in National Ranking event

New Delhi: The country`s top archers, including Deepika Kumari, will be seen in action in the TATA National Ranking Archery Tournament (NRAT) - 2nd Stage for Sub-Junior, Junior and Senior beginning at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Tuesday.

The prize-money tournament, to be sponsored by TATA Steel Ltd. And TATA Sons Ltd., will end on March 30. 16 archers each in Sub-Junior, Junior and Senior Recurve and Compound (men and women) categories for the 2nd NRAT have been selected taking into account the results of 1st NRAT held here from February 10-14. Sub-Junior archers will compete on March 25 and 26 while Junior archers will vie for honours on March 27 and 28. The competition in senior category will be held from March 28-30. All ace senior archers of the country including Dola Banerjee, Deepika Kumari, Bombayala Devi, Rimil Buruily, Chekrovolu Swuro, Reena Kumari, V Pranitha, Tarundeep Rai, Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee, Atanu Das, Mangal Singh Champia will compete in recurve category. Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chouhan, Jignas, Ratan Singh, Ritul Chatterjee, Sandeep Kumar, Chinglen Sana, Gagandeep Kaur, Jyothi Surekha, Manjudha Soy, Jayalakshim Sariharikonda, Parveena, P Lily Chanu will take part in compound category. Archery Association of India President Vijay Kumar Malhotra said more than Rs 6 lakh would be awarded to the top four position holders as cash incentives in Sub-Junior and Junior categories and top eight archers in senior categories. Cash award totaling Rs 50 lakh would be disbursed to archers in four NRATs followed by final. "It`s for the first time that any National Archery event registered with World Archery Federation," he said in a release. Team `A` comprising archers ranked 1 to 4 in 2nd NRAT will participate in the 1st Stage Archery World Cup to be held at Shanghai (China) from April 22-27 and Team `B` consisting of archers positioned from 5 to 8 will get tickets to Medellin (Colombia) for taking part in the 2nd Stage Archery World Cup to be held from May 13-18. TATA National Ranking Archery Tournament-3rd Stage and 4th Stage will be held in Hyderabad from May 26 to June 2 and June 23-30 respectively. Results of all four NRATs will decide the finalist of the final NRAT in November.