Children hit the bull’s eye

‘Vijayawada has emerged on the world map in the archery’

On cloud nine: Kids flaunt their medals after the national kids’ archery championship in Vijayawada on Saturday.

People had apprehensions about safety of children when kids’ archery was introduced and many wanted make it a human rights issue as they compared training of the nine-year-olds as physical hardship. But the successful conduct of the 2nd edition of the national kids archery championship in Vijayawada has proved the critics wrong, Andhra Pradesh Archery Association secretary Cherukuri Satyanarayana said here on Saturday.

Speaking at the concluding ceremony of the National championship at Siddhartha Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology, he said the first kids’ National archery, with the permission of Archery Association of India, was held in Visakhapatnam in 2015 in a resounding way and that the second edition in Vijayawada witnessed hundreds of young kids from 25 States taking part.

“It is a fact that a tight security should be in place while conducting the event for kids as the arrows may go astray. Even the equipment makers were not cooperating but finally they agreed to come out with small-sized bows and arrows for the promotion of the game among under-9 age group,” he said.

Mr. Satyanarayana said Vijayawada never backed out to host any national event and this was the tenth nationals staged which acted as a platform to catapult many talented players.

Coaches

He advised the young archers to the listen to the instructions of their coaches and practice as per their observations, “Coaches are the real well-wishers of you. They strive hard daily to make you a champion and you should respect and learn from him to wear the Indian colours,” he exhorted the hundreds of children who had come to attend the event with their parents and grandparents. Siddhartha Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology principal Chandrasekhar appreciated Mr. Satyanarayana for staging the mega national event in a befitting way and promised to provide him help in the future for hosting big events. District Sports Development Officer Srinivasa Rao said that Vijayawada hit the world map in archery owing to several archers from Volga Archery Academy bagging medals in the national and international events.“SAAP will always support archery as it has been identified as medal winning sport,” he said.