Out of the national team for nearly a year,archer Chekrovolu Swuro stormed back to the forefront again,earning a prized spot in the womens recurve team for the World Cup Stage II and III events that was picked on Sunday. Nagaland girl Chekrovolu stood overall second in the selection trials conducted by the Archery Association of India (AAI) at SAIs Kolkata centre. Once an India regular with Dola and Reena Kumari,Chekrovolu last represented India at the World Cup (Stage 1) held in Santo Domingo in 2008. She is also the only senior who never made the Olympic cut. However,she showed remarkable focus and consistency during the trials to get the better of Dola and Rimil to finish second. Laishram Bombayla Devi took the top slot. Dola Banerjee finished third and Rimil Biruily was fourth. As the trials neared their end,there was another surprise in store. Following the footsteps of sub-junior National runner-up Arjun Rao booking a place in the mens compound side for the two World Cups,it was the turn of reigning sub-junior champion Sarikonda Jayalakshmi of Maharashtra to storm the womens compound bow section predominantly the domain of archers from Jharkhand. Jayalakshmi finished second behind former National champion Namita Yadav of Jharkhand. Namita came in in place of statemate Manjudha Soy. National champion Jhanu Hansda and Bheigyabati Chanu failed to participate in the ongoing trials due to the non-arrival of their equipment from Santo Domingo. AAI secretary-general PN Mukherjee,along with National coach Limba Ram and other coaches,decided to exempt the duo from appearing for the trials and retained the two in the team on the basis of past performances at the highest level. The rest fought for two berths available in the womens compound section from which Namita and Jayalakshmi made it to the side.
