Jharkhand started their campaign in the 40th NTPC Senior National Archery Championship by claiming a gold and a silver in the Indian Round (shooting with traditional bows and arrows) at JRD Tata Sports Complex on Saturday.

Asrita Biruily slotted home gold in 50m distance in women's individual category, Goldi Mishra bagged silver in 30m distance in men's individual section.

Arjun Munda, Union minister of tribal affairs and president of Archery Association of India, formally inaugurated the championship in the presence of Chanakya Chaudhary, vice-president (Corporate Services), Tata Steel, Pramod Chandrukar, secretary general (AAI), Partha Mazumdar, regional executive director (Coal Mining, NTPC) and Farzan Heerjee, chief (Protocol and Sports), Tata Steel and office bearers of Jharkhand Archery Association (JAA).

The event is being organised by AAI along with Jharkhand Archery Association (JAA) and hosted by Tata Steel’s Tata Archery Academy.

Congratulating Tata Steel for hosting the championship, Munda said that the government is committed to promoting every sport and is working towards creating infrastructure, training of sportspersons and promoting and supporting coaches and players.

"The government is committed to promoting sports and creating the required infrastructure for players and coaches," he added and thanked Tata Steel for hosting the event.

Chanakya Chaudhary said Tata Steel is proud to host the nationals. "This event was planned as part of the celebration of 25 years of Tata Archery Academy (TAA), which was established on October 4, 1996. Jharkhand has a legacy of archery and has produced many prominent archers like Deepika Kumari, Komalika Bari and Ankita Bhakat who are the examples who have recently made all proud in the World Cup and Youth World Championships. Hosting this event in Jharkhand will motivate the local archers by watching the best archers from all over the country perform live."

He added that Tata Steel is grateful to Arjun Munda for giving Jharkhand Archery Association and Tata Steel the opportunity to host this event and also the national camp for the selected archers in Jamshedpur.

The 10-day long national meet will witness the presence of hundreds of eminent archers from across the country, team officials, sports control promotion boards, esteemed jury, among others. The action-packed event will have Indian Round, Compound and Recurve National (men and women). The championship is reserved for the Indian round on October 2 and 3, followed by compound events on October 5 and 6 and Recurve (Olympic) event on October 8 and 9.

The Senior National is of immense importance as the top 16 rank holders in recurve (men and women) and compound (men and women) categories will be picked from this championship for the final trials to be held on October 10 and 11 at Jamshedpur. This will be the basis of the Indian team’s selection for Asian Archery Championship to be held in Dhaka.

On October 4, Tata Steel will also observe the silver jubilee of the TAA, which was set up to encourage the indigenous talent of local youth. Since 1996, the Tata Archery Academy has successfully nurtured and trained talented youngsters to contribute to the greater glory of the country.