Dola Banerjee grabs the world championship title

In the final, Choi had the first go at the target and got 9-9-10 (28). Dola trailed by one point after the first round with 10-8-9 (27). The young Korean started the second with an 8 but went on with two 10s to keep her short lead over her opponent who scored two 9s and one 10 (56-55).

In what turned out to be an extremely close contest, Choi kept the lead at 85-84 and it seemed that Dola’s dreams of becoming champion would remain unfulfilled. And that feeling got stronger as she shot an 8 with her 10th arrow. But Choi faltered a bit, and shot a 7 at this point, and the scores were tied.

They both shot a 9 next and Dola struck 8 with her last arrow. Choi needed a nine to win, but she failed and the Indian returned triumphant.

Indian Archery Association vice president, Pareshnath Mukherjee, said from Dubai: “It is a great win. Dola has scripted history for India. We are all extremely proud of her. It was a very tough battle, but she remained cool and got the reward.”

Dola has already grabbed for herself an Olympic berth.

DOLA’S GOLDEN QUIVER

• Born: June 2, 1980 in Kolkata

• Early training: at the Tata Archery Academy, Jamshedpur

• 2005: Got the Arjuna Award

• 2005: Won the Golden Arrow Grand Prix Championship in Antalya, Turkey.

• 2006: Colombo SAF Games gold

• 2007: Dola and Indian women archers qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Leipzig when they defeated Russia 206-198 in first elimination round at the 44th World Outdoor Archery Championships.

• 2007: Won the second international gold medal of her career when she bagged the individual recurve title of the fourth leg of the Meteksan World Cup archery at Dover. Second-seeded Dola beat top-seeded Chinese Juan Juan Zhang 111-110. this was her second international gold after the Antalya success.

• 2007: First Indian woman to win World Archery Championship title

ENS