Twenty-three-year-old Kamlesh Vasava, a tribal archer from Bodeli in Chhota Udepur district, has played several tournaments at local and national levels, and has won many medals, the latest being a bronze medal at the all-India university level tournament held in Chandigarh in January this year. But for the first time in his life, he takes aim from a recurve bow, which is used in the Olympic games. “All the tournaments that I have played so far, right from school to university levels, I have used an Indian bow. Using recurve bow is an experience for me. It makes us feel that we are already preparing for the Olympic games,” Vasava, a second-year MA student at Seth TK Kapadia Arts and Commerce College, said. Vasava is participating at a one-month-long camp being organised by the Sports Authority of Gujarat (SAG) in Vadodara along with 45 other participants coming in all age groups from across the state, mostly from the tribal districts of Aravalli, the Panchmahals, Dahod, Chhota Udepur and Narmada. The players are among the best from the state who have been selected by a special committee so that they could be trained in a manner that they make the cut in the international tournaments. The state government will also pay them a stipend of Rs 4,500 per month. This is the first time that these archers are holding recurve and compound bows that are primarily used in international tournaments. “Playing with recurve bow gives us confidence that we can play at international tournaments. It is a different experience to play with such bows - they are swift, sharp, and modern,” said Vanji Dubil, a Class X student at Sainik School in Aravalli’s Modasa taluka who has won over a dozen medals at the state government’s annual Khel Mahakumbh tournament, and brought home two silver medals from the all-India U-17 tournament held early this year. Chhagan Rathva, a Class VIII student from Ghogamba in Dahod, shares similar excitement at using the new equipment. Just back after winning two golds at the all-India U-14 tournament held in Hyderabad, Rathva said that he was already preparing for the Olympic games. “I still have to play many more tournaments before I get a chance to represent India at the Olympic games, but I have already started preparing for it,” he said. To train these archers are experts who have played international games and are familiar with the equipments. Isaiah Sanam, an archer from Hyderabad, assist young archers on how to use recurve and compound bows along with techniques. “We are here to assist them with compound and recurve bows as to how to tune them and set them right. The system in recurve bow is complicated, with three strings and a wheel to make it powerful and faster,” Sanam said. Dinesh Rathi, head coach of SAG, who runs Eklavya Academy at Nasvadi in Vadodara district, said that the idea of the camp was to train archers so the number of players from the state representing in the international games could rise. “Few from Gujarat have participated in the international games, despite there being no dearth of talent. This is the first time the state government has taken initiative to give top players form across the state a stipend and special trainings like this one so that our players could make it to the international games, including the Olympics,” he said.
