Golden haul for Indian archers

The performance of archers at the Commonwealth Championships is proof that archery remains one of India?s biggest medal hopes in the Asiads, writes Khurram Habib.

The performance of Indian archers at the Commonwealth Archery Championships in Jamshedpur — where they collected five gold medals — is proof that archery remains one of India’s biggest medal hopes in the forthcoming Asiads.

HT Image

While a rich medal haul was expected, the fact that India grabbed three out of the four available gold in recurve — the Asian Games event — bodes well for the future. In fact, the only gold India missed in the event was in the individual men’s section, where World No. 4 Jayanta Talukdar was ousted due to the incompetence of the technical committee.

The committee first disqualified him and then revoked the disqualification, though by then, it was too late and Jayanta could only participate in the team event, winning gold.

The day however, belonged to Dola Banerjee, who not only won the individual event but also led India to gold in the team event. “It was a tough fight. Naomi Folkard took me to the tie-breaker but I held my nerves,” said Dola from Jamshedpur.