Indian Archery Thread ...

[PKBasu]

Congratulations to Dola Banerjee for winning the gold in the World Cup final for women's individual recurve. This is a superb achievement in itself, but I hope she can repeat it at the Beijing Olympics next year...

[usaindian]

dola bagged sponsorship
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/244612.html

[jaydeep]

This is really great news and will definitely help her to concentrate more on her preparation for Olympics 2008 without monetary worry.

Thank You Samsung!!!

[PKBasu]

Kudos to Samsung for having the vision to do this. The Samsung group patriarch, Lee Kun-hee, belongs to an aristocratic family -- and he has been a visionary not only for his country overall, but for Korean sports as well. His group has only taken the lead in sponsoring Indian sportspersons over the years (including, IIRC, the Indian hockey team). Good to see Samsung providing sponsorship to Dola Banerjee now.

Shame on Indian corporates for leaving the field open for a foreign company to sponsor one of our best hopes for Olympic gold next year...

[arjun2761]

Well, our men recurve archers are doing very well in the recent series of World Cups.  In the current WC in Croatia, Rahul Bannerjee will be going for gold in the individual event while the mens team will be going for bronze afer finishing second in the prelims.  Potentially, two medals here in an Olympic quality field.

However, the women's team is not doing very well.  In particular, Dola Bannerjee is in a real slump after her sensational results last year where she won the elite 4 person competition among the top 4 performers in the WCs.

Also, noticed that Jayanta Talukdar had made the elite 4 person field of top performers in WCs in 2006 (although coming last among the 4) and then went into a real slump the following year...

[sameerph]

Yes, superb performance by Indian archers ( specially Rahul Banarjee) here in a field which includes almost everone who will be there at the Olympics.

Here are the transcripts of India's matches from archary world cup site -

Semi-final: Italy - India


The team of India had the best start with 10-9-9-9-9-10 (56). With 55 pts in the first end, Olympic Champion Marco Galiazzo and teammates were trailing by 1 pt. Their deficit even doubled at the half-way mark although they shot 9-10-9-10-9-10 (111). With a series of 9-10-10-9-9-10 (113) India seemed to be on the right track. However, in the third end the Italians could score four 10s and two 9s (169) and recovered 1 pt (9-10-10-10-9-9/170 for India). Galiazzo's team started the last end with an 8, but they then followed with four 10s again and a 9 overtaking their opponents who could "only" manage on one 10 and five 9s. With 226 pts the Italians set a new national record!

Quarter-final: TALUKDAR Jayanta (IND) – IM Dong Hyun (KOR)


A great match as well! Both arhers started with a 28, then Talukdar scored 10-8-9, while Im had 9-10-10. The Indian came back in the third end with 9-9-10 compared to the Korean’s 9-9-9. However, Im didn’t lose another point as they scored 9-10-10 and 10-9-10 in the last end. Im won 113-112!

Semi-final: PARK Kyung-Mo (KOR) – BANERJEE Rahul (IND)


Both archers stared with a 26 then Park had a good group of arrows but not in the right spot on the target: 9-8-8. Banerjee took the lead 54-51 and did not let go: 81-79 and a final score of 110-107. The younger brother of Dola (2007 World Cup Winner in Recurve Women) will meet Girouille in the final of the 2008 World Cup Stage 1 in Porec!

So, Talukdar played a pretty good match against a Korean & Banarjee beat another Korean in SF. In team event, Indians also had a close loss against Italians ( which included olympic champion)in SF. That is encouraging in olympic year.




 

[arjun2761]

Rahul Banerjee loses the final 110-115 to Frenchman Giroulle to take silver in individual recurve.

However, our mens recurve team then thrash the French 220-213 to take team bronze.  The 220 scored by the Indians was higher than the score put up the gold and silver winning teams (presumably in similar conditions), so our mens recurve team is looking very good.

[PKBasu]

Archery is one sport where we have made steady, systematic progress over several years -- although (as far as I know) the same individual (Vijay Kumar Malhotra) has been administering the sport for a couple of decades. 10-15 years ago (with the likes of Limbu Ram) it appeared we were getting close to world class, but the last two years have really put us in the world league. The Olympics will be the real test of where we stand, but it is nice to see that there is another sport (apart from shooting, and women's weightlifting) in which we may have serious medal contenders.

[mugu]

...but it is nice to see that there is another sport (apart from shooting, and women's weightlifting) in which we may have serious medal contenders.

PKB, please note we are yet to get an Olympic spot in weightlifting. That should come, hopefully, from the forthcoming Asian championships in Kanazawa City, Japan.(April 23-May 2; actual competition begins April 26) where we stand to gain just one woman's berth. We missed the bus for more numbers since we didn't have adequate points from the 2006 (missed due to suspension) and 2007 World championships put together. (It is a moot point whether India would have gained anything even if we had competed in 2006. We are talking here only about women since our men's standards are pathetically low). Our standards are very low even in women's and there should be very little chance of getting a medal in Beijing (provided we get a qualification slot from Japan) unless Karnam Malleswari makes a dramatic return to the big stage. (She has been playing hide and seek with WADA teams in the recent past!)

[arjun2761]

http://www.archery.org/UserFiles/Docume ... /TEFRM.pdf

Indian men recurve archers win the gold in the World Cup in Turkey pretty decisively with the best scores in most of the knock-out rounds.

In the prelims, the Indian team broke the existing world record only to have the Koreans go a little better and retain the world record.  The men recurve archers really seem to be on a roll this year.

[PKBasu]

WOW!!! World champions in the recurve team championship!!! Congratulations to the team of Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar -- World Cup champions!!!!!!

Fantastic stuff from the team. Rahul Banerjee and Jayanta Talukdar have been steadily moving toward the top of the world, and it is wonderful to see them win a World Cup team competition in the Olympic year. (I think there are several World Cups held in a year, so they are not necessarily the world champs, but winning one World Cup is achievement enough). Archery looks like one of our best bets for several medals in Beijing. Congratulations to VK Malhotra, too, for his persistence over a couple of decades that is finally paying off in this wonderful way (in both men's and women's archery, particularly recurve).

[mugu]

There are 12 medals in all in Olympics archery. Individual men's competition -three medals; men's team competition-three medals; Individual women's competition-three medals; women's team competition-three medals.
The Indian women's team (of three who will also compete in individual contest) has qualified. But not men's team. In men's only one archer (Mangal Singh Champia earned that quota and now he has been selected as well) has qualified for the individual competition.
The FITA Olympic round competition involves a preliminary/ranking round followed by a knock-out round in both team and individual competitions. The semifinal losers shoot off for the bronze in both individual and team competitions.

[sameerph]

Yes. It is unfortunate that mens team has not qualified for Olympics. They would have had a real chance for a medal had they been there. Womens team which has qualified is not doing as well.

It is very difficult to win an individual medal in tough field. So, chances of medal in Archary look quite slim.

[jaydeep]

Superb performance from Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar ... Its really unfortunate they failed in qualifying to qualify for Olympics.

Jaydeep

[PKBasu]

What were the qualifying criteria? Surely, winning a World Cup should be good enough to get you qualified for the Olympics...??