Indian Archers shine in Asian Grand Prix

An outstanding performance from the Indian Compound Archers and the recurve archers saw India top the medal standings at the first ever Asian Grand Prix which was concluded in Bangkok on Sunday. Indian archers ended the tournament with a bunch of medals which include four gold, five silver and two bronze. Of the four medals three went to the Compound Archers where as one was won by recurve archers but overall recurve archers were a bit disappointing.

The first Gold Medal went to the CWG gold medalist, Jignas Chittibomma, who defeated the Indian National Champion, Rajat Chauhan, in the tie breakers. In an all-Indian final the 18-year-old Jignas and Rajasthan boy Rajat were tied at 144 each at the end so the match went to the tie breaker. In the tie breaker both hit the bull’s eye but Jignas’ arrow was found to be closer to the centre and it gave him the second international gold. The second Gold medal went to the Men’s compound trio of Rajat Chauhan, Ritul Chatterjee and Jignis Chittibomma.

The trio of Chauhan, Chatterjee and Jignas thrashed their opponents from Hong Kong 224-211 to claim the team gold medal. Also in the Semi Finals the trio defeated South Korea by 236-224. The third Gold was won in the mixed team event in the compound section where Rajat Chauhan partnered Jhano Hansdah to beat the Myanmar duo 151-148 to get the top position. The fourth and the only Gold medal in the recurve event came in the mixed team event where The Indian team of Jayanta Talukadarand Laishram Bombayla Devi took gold beating the Japanese team at 143-142 in the final. Silver medal was won in the men’s and women’s individual recurve event where Mangal Singh Champia and Chekrovolu Swuro lost in the finals and the other two silver medals were won by men’s and women’s recurve team. In women’s recurve team the trio of London Olympics-bound Deepika Kumari, Chekrovolu Swuro and Laishram Bombayla Devi suffered a 211-213 defeat to the Chinese team in the women’s final.

In men’s section the trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Mangal Singh Champia and Thupuvoyi Swuro lost to the Frenchmen by a narrow margin of 217-218. Out of the two bronze medals which India won, one went to compound women’s team of Jhano Hansdah, Gagandeep Kaur and Manjudha Soy who lost to Thailand 217-221 in the semis but eventually defeated Hong Kong 227-215 in the bronze medal match. Jhano also won the bronze in women’s individual section where she defeated her team mate Gagandeep in the tie breaker.

So if we look at the overall performance of the Compound archery team, they really played well whereas the recurve team was a bit disappointing. As things stand, presently no Compound Archers from the country have qualified for the London 2012 where as four recurve archers have got the Olympic Quota. So if our compound team performs like this before the Oympics then they will surely secure the Olympic Quota.