Archers from the city made both their new State of Andhra Pradesh and Red Fort proud on Sunday by winning a bagful of medals in the final national ranking archery tournament, a premier event that showcased the best of talents in the country. For the first time in the history of the Red Fort, a sporting event was held on its premises.
Leading the pack was 15-year-old Purvasha Shinde, a trainee at Volga Archery Academy who won a gold medal in the sub-junior compound event and later settled for two silver medals in the junior and senior women compound categories. Incidentally, Purvasha won a bronze medal in the team event in the recently-concluded Asian Games at Incheon (South Korea).
“Teenager Purvasha created a sensation by making it to the finals of all the three events. She could win one among three. But, she gave a good fight to her rivals the other two finals,” said Cherukuri Satyanarayana, secretary of Andhra Pradesh Archery Association. Purvasha defeated K. Jyosthna, her fellow-archer from Volga Archery Academy 137-132 in the sub-junior final, but later, she lost to Madhumita Kumari of Jharkhand 138-143 (junior) and Trisha Deb of Punjab 140-144 in the senior women’s category.
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City archer Vennam Jyothi Surekha, a Koneru Lakshmaiah University student, bagged the bronze in the senior compound segment defeating Supriya of Haryana 142-137.
Ch. Jignas, a former Vogla Archery Academy product and presently representing Services Sports Promotion Board (SSCB), lost his gold medal match narrowly losing out to Asian Games medalist Rajat Chouhan 145-147. The other archers from Volga Archery Academy, Ritual Chatterjee and Geethika Lakshmi, qualified for the bronze medal match but could not make a podium finish.
Said Shravan, a senior archery administrator: “Vijayawada is the hub of compound archery in the country. Six city archers entering the medal winning rounds is a heartening achievement.”
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