Almost in keeping with the momentum of the glorious Asian Games 2023 archery results where India shone bright with five gold medals, Newtown’s Biswa Bangla Exhibition Centre is all set to host the Indian Open Indoor Archery Tournament, a brainchild of Dola & Rahul Banerjee Sports Foundation, with Olympian archers, Arjuna awardees and Commonwealth Games medallist sibling duo Dola and Rahul Banerjee — synonymous with archery in Bengal — at the helm.
“The USP is that this is an indoor tournament. Otherwise, we have seen all archery tournaments being held outdoors. World Archery has merged indoor and outdoor rankings. We have played indoor World Cup or Championship, but India never really had a tradition of indoor archery tournaments. We are trying to introduce the trend of an indoor tournament. The advantage is kids can easily shoot and more people can try archery because of the short distance. We can also start archery in schools. Most of the schools don’t have a big ground and you need a 100m ground for archery, but most will have an indoor facility,” says Rahul.
The competition will see some of India’s finest take part. Commonwealth gold medallist and Olympian Deepika Kumari; Olympian Atanu Das; world number six (compound men individual) Ojas Deotale, India’s first-ever male archery world champion; and Aditi Gopichand Swami, the 17-year-old who hit record books by becoming the youngest World Archery Champion in the World Cup-era (2006 and on) will all be a part of the second edition of Indian Open Indoor Archery Tournament, that was held first in 2018, at Netaji Indoor Stadium.
“There will be two ranking rounds comprising 30 arrows each, totalling 60 arrows. 60 x 10 is the highest mark. Out of 600, whoever shoots the highest, there will be a ranking of 32 archers. Then we’ll have eliminations, leading up to the finals. The finals will be showcased on Eurosport, live. The matches will be exactly like the Olympics or World Championships. It’ll be more spectator-friendly. You can also walk in and come and try archery,” says Rahul.
The glass-encased venue will offer a great view as well, feels Rahul. He hopes that the three-day affair will serve as a great promotion for the sports in Bengal. “A lot of parents are taking a serious interest in sports and have the confidence that it can be a profession for their kids. Previously, it was just cricket and football, now even Olympic sports are garnering a lot of interest. The more the pool of players, the more are the chances of India winning a medal,” he says.
There are plans to make it a series, with the next chapter travelling to Ahmedabad in May.
We say, all the best!