Archery veers away from target

Mysore, June 1: Hitting the bull's eye is what every archer looks for. But, working without a target is what the organisers of the event in...

Mysore, June 1: Hitting the bull’s eye is what every archer looks for. But, working without a target is what the organisers of the event in the fourth National Games seem to have aimed for. There are just two make-shift targets at the Chamundi Vihar stadium to suggest that the competitions will get off to a scheduled start tomorrow. Even the grounds are yet to be marked.

In the event, internationals Limba Ram and Lalrem Sanga, who came to the venue today hoping to grab a good round of practice, had to leave the arena disappointed as nobody knew when the venue would be ready.

Former India captain Sanjeeva Singh, who is here in this capacity as the government nominee to supervise the archery event, said “I sincerely doubt if the ground would be ready for the event tomorrow.” But, the teasurer of the Archery Association of India, Vishwambar Dutt Sharma, assured that everything will be “OK by tomorrow.”

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The ranking round of the event will begin on Monday with every archer getting to shoot 72 arrows at 70 metres. Based on their respective scores out of the 720 points in the ranking round — 64 archers in men and 32 in women will qualify for the elimination round which will be on a one-to-one basis.

The ranking round will also decide the top eight teams which will make it to the fight for the team championship. In the team competitions, three archers will form a team and they would get three arrows each to shoot at 70 metres.

Bihar looks the best bet to win the team championship in both the categories. Limba and Lalrem will lead the Bihar campaign in the men’s section while Poornima Mahato and Jhanu Hansda will compete in the women’s section. Limba and Poornima are the current National champions.

Uttar Pradesh, comprising Ved Kumar and Satdev, should give Bihar a good fight while in the women’s section Dola Banerjee and Tira Samanta will compete for West Bengal in the battle for supremacy with Bihar.

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Talented archers from the North East like Chungda Sherpa (Meghalaya) and Skalzang Dorjee (HP) among men and Vesuzolu Swutro of Nagaland and Angela Devi of Manipur will be the others to catch the eye.

But, everything depends upon the venue getting ready in time for the meet.