Two women archers from Jharkhand, Komalika Bari and Ankita Bhakat, have secured berths in the 8-member national recurve squad for the Asian Championship to be held at Dhaka, Bangladesh between November 11 and 18.
Other members in the women's squad include Ridhi and Madhu Vedwan. Purnima Mahato, coach of Jamshedpur-based Tata Archery Academy (TAA), has been appointed coach of the women's side.
Both Komalika and Ankita are cadets of elite Tata archery cradle and have represented the country in international competitions. Komalika is being considered as an Olympic medal prospect thanks to her splendid performances in international events. She became the world junior champion after clinching the gold medal at the World Youth Archery Championship in Wroclaw, Poland in August this year.
Earlier in June, Komalika and Ankita, along with Jharkhand mate Deepika Kumari, made the country proud by bagging gold in the World Cup Stage 3 in Paris.
The men’s recurve side, on the other hand, include Kapil, Parth Sushant Salunkhe, Olympian Pravin Jadhav and Sukhchain Singh. W Ranjan Singh (Jr) is the coach of the men's outfit.
The men’s compound team comprises Abhishek Verma, Rishabh Yadav, Mohit and Amit Saini while the women's side include Jyoti Surekha, Muskan Kirar Parneet Kaur and Priya Gurjar. Lokesh Chand and Richpal Singh Salaria will accompany as coaches of the men's and women's compound side, respectively.
The national recurve and compound outfits were picked after a two-day selection trials conducted by the Archery Association of India (AAI) at the JRD Tata Sports Complex in Jamshedpur on October 11 and 12. The selected archers were part of the 40th NTPC Senior National Archery Championship in the steel city.
“It's a balanced side which is expected to perform well at the Asian Championship,” said Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, member of the AAI selection panel.
Badminton
Jharkhand Badminton Association is organising the state senior (men and women) and junior (under-19 boys and girls) championships in Dumka and Hazaribagh, respectively. While the senior event (men and women) is scheduled from October 17 to 20, the junior championship will be staged between October 22 and 24. Shuttlers without Badminton Association of India (BAI) IDs will not be allowed to participate in either tournament. “Points from the senior and junior events will be added for the upcoming zonal and national championships,” said JBA secretary and BAI’s joint secretary K. Prabhakar Rao.
