The school run by the Rural Development Foundation has produced ace players in archery and the latest is a tribal girl Guguloth Praneetha.
She studied in the school since LKG and is into second year of Intermediate at Vanitha Achyutha Pai Junior College run by the RDF at Kalleda village in Parvathagiri mandal here. She secured first rank in the National Ranking Archery Tournament (NRAT) in individual ranking and secured sixth position in elimination games.
Speaking to The Hindu , Ms. Praneetha said she was being trained by the school since her 9th class and has taken part in eight national level events beside recent National Games at Kerala. She says she was hoping to make it to Olympics next time. Her coach Akula Raju said Ms Praneetha has a promising future in archery and would definitely secure medals for India. Hailing from an agricultural family of modest means, Praneetha has been practicing eight hours a day. She won several bronze medals in team events and one gold medal in individual championships held at Jharkhand in January 2015 in sub-juniors category. Mr. Raju explained that earlier one Vardhineni Praneetha represented Indian from this school at Beijing Olympics in 2008. She is now playing and coaching at Sports Authority of India at Gujarat. Four other students – A Raju, E Raju, M Ramesh and V Raju were working in army while V Sharada is now working as constable in ITBP. M Ranjith and M Prasanna Kumar of RDF school were now representing TATA academy while N Lavanya is representing SAIL. Ms Guguloth Praneetha said that the school management was providing latest equipment to practice and compete at the national and international level. “RDF founder and philanthropist Errabelli Rammohan Rao sir is encouraging us all by liberally sponsoring events ,” she said.
