Deepika Kumari (SPSB) must have won a lot of medals at the international level, but playing the recurve women’s final against a veteran like Dola Banerjee in the Sahara-33rd senior National archery championship at the Anna University ground here on Monday, did give her the initial jitters.
The two-time Olympian, Dola of Railways troubled the young star in the first few sets, but Deepika took control in the later stages to triumph 7-3 to retain the title.
“It’s not easy playing Dola ( ji ). She is experienced and a very good player. I was not tensed. I just had to focus hard to maintain my consistency,” said Deepika.
Tough fight
In the men’s recurve summit clash, Kapil (Railways) defeated Raj Gobind Swansi of Services 6-4. It wasn’t easy for Kapil at all. The first set was a tie with each scoring 25. Raj scored more 10s and 9s to take the second at 27-25. Kapil, however, won the next two sets to take stranglehold of the match.
“This is my first gold medal at the Nationals. I have to thank Railways for providing me with all the help,” said Kapil.
Services’ Ch. Jignas and P. Lily Chanu of Manipur clinched the men’s and women’s compound individual gold. Jignas defeated Paltan Hansda (Railways) 142-137 in the final while Lily overcame Anjali Kumari (Bihar) 131-128.
V.K. Malhotra, President, Archery Association of India (AAI), seemed unfazed while speaking to The Hindu on the issue of Sports Ministry derecognising AAI.
“The sports code is illegal and unconstitutional. All the speakers who spoke (on the issue) in the Parliament including Arun Jaitley were against the sports code. We are happy that the international archery body is standing by us. It (derecognising) will not affect the players. The Federation (AAI) is confident of raising its own funds. It is not a problem,” he said.
The Tamilnadu Government has given Rs. 50 lakh to the Archery Association of Tamilnadu for the Senior National Championship.
The results:
Recurve (Olympic round): Men: 1. Kapil (RSPB), 2. Raj Gobind Swansi (SSCB), 3. Dinesh Du. Bhil (Guj).
Women: 1. Deepika Kumari (SPSB), 2. Dola Banerjee (RSPB), 3. Laxmirani Majhi (Jharkhand).
Team event: Men: RSPB (Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia, Kapil Hemanta Basumatary) 214, 2. SSCB (Rajib Basumatary, Tarundeep Rai, Raj Gobind Swansi, Vishwas) 208, 3. Jharkhand (Pawan Xalxo, Bulbul Marandi, Manjthi Sawiyan, M. Prasanna Kumar) 216.
Compound: (Olympic round): Men: 1. Ch. Jignas (SSCB) 142, 2. Paltan Hansda (RSPB) 137, 3. Rajat Chauhan (Raj) 142.
Women: 1. P. Lily Chanu (Man) 131, 2. Anjali Kumari (Bihar) 128, 3. Gitanjali Laishram (Man) 143.
Team event:
Men: 1. SSCB (Ch. Jignas, Ratan Singh, C. Srither, Vimlendra Pandey) 223, 2. Jammu & Kashmir (I. Sanatomba Singh, Ramesh Munda, Manish Kr Sharma, Sanjay Swansi) 217, 3. RSPB (Paltan Hansda, J. Rama Rao, Vikas Sherawat, Shivnath Nagesia) 224.
Women: 1. RSPB (Manjudha Soy, Gagandeep Kaur, Namita Yadav, Sakro Besra) 199, 2. Jharkhand (Madhumita Kumari, Jhano Hansda, Durgawati Kumari, Jyoti Kumari) 186, 3. Manipur (P. Lily Chanu, Gitanjali Laishram, R.K. Satypriya Devi, G. Daneshwary Devi) 229.
