40th NTPC Senior National Archery Championship: Ram Soren and M. Baby Devi finish on top on opening day

Jharkhand started their campaign in the 40th NTPC Senior National Archery Championship by claiming a gold and silver medal in the Indian Round (shooting with traditional bows and arrows) at JRD Tata Sports Complex on Saturday.

Asrita Biruily claimed gold in the 50m distance in women’s individual category while Goldi Mishra won a silver medal in the 30m distance in men’s individual event.

Ram Soren and M. Baby Devi finished at the top in the men's and women's sections, respectively, after the individual ranking round of the Indian bow event on the opening day of the National archery championships.

Soren from Mizoram, scored a total of 666 points. He was followed by Jharkhand's Goldi Mishra and Manipur's S. Robert Singh, who scored an identical 658.

Baby Devi of Manipur amassed 637 points to top the charts among women. Usha Devi of Jammu and Kashmir and Sunita Bhardwaj of Uttar Pradesh took the second and third spots with scores of 635 and 634 respectively.

Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, Arjun Munda, formally inaugurated the 40th NTPC Senior National Archery Championship at Archery Ground, JRD Tata Sports Complex at Jamshedpur.

40th NTPC Senior National Archery Championship schedule:

Senior National will be conducted in three phases starting with the Indian Round (Bamboo Round) event from 2-3 October, 2021 followed by the Compound event from 5-6 October and Recurve (Olympic) event from 8-9 October.

The Senior National holds immense importance as the top 16 rank holders in the recurve (men and women) and compound (men and women) categories. The ranked archers will be picked from this championship for the final trials to be held on October 10 and 11 at Jamshedpur.

This will be the basis of the Indian team’s selection for the Asian Archery Championship to be held in Dhaka.