Rahul Banerjee, Deepika Kumari, C. Srither & Jhano Hansdah are National champions

Rahul Banerjee of Steel Plant retained the Olympic round individual recurve title by stopping Majhi Sawaiyan of Mizoram 111-104 in the final of the men's event of the 29th Senior National Archery Championship. Bulbul Marandi of Services defeated Adonda Raju of SPSB 102-100 to take the bronze medal. This was Marandi's maiden medal. The strapping young lad promised much during his junior days but delivered little. He seemed to have broken the psychological barrier in the company of men.

Olympian Mangal Singh Champia of Railways was shocked by up and coming Atanu Das of Jharkhand in the round of 16. Seasoned Champia and the reigning Cadet National champion scored 108 in 12 arrows. In the tie-break shot, Das had an X (10 points) as against Champia's 9!

Pre-tournament favourites Jayanta Talukdar of Steel Plant and top seed Vishwash of Services were eliminated in the quarterfinals. Sawaiyan, a regular India international a few years ago was out of form and favour of late. He returned to limelight in this National scalping perhaps one of the biggest names of Indian archery Jayanta Talukdar.

The 106-105 victory will mean a lot for this stocky archer from Jharkhand who failed to find a place in any of the leading states including his employer. First Olympian from Northeast, Lalrem Sanga, now running the show in Mizoram, came to his rescue and Sawaiyan did not disappoint the magnificent state with a silver medal. Marandi sent Vishwash packing 110-105.

Olympians bite the dust

Olympian and defending ladies' champion Laishram Bombayla Devi of Railways failed to go past the quarterfinal stage losing to eventual bronze medalist Reena Kumari of Railways 102-109. The ladies' Olympic round individual recurve crown went to reigning Cadet National Champion Deepika Kumari of Jharkhand, who won her maiden senior crown. Deepika defeated another first timer Shweta of Chandigarh in the final 102-97. Reena tamed Tarika Sharma of Chandigarh 107-102 for the third place finish.

Other two Olympians, Dola Banerjee of Railways lost to eventual winner Deepika 101-102 in the quarterfinals. More shocking fate awaited top seed V. Pranitha of Steel Plant who lost to eventual silver medalist Shweta 101-102 in the round of 32.

The men's team recurve event, the gold medal went to Steel Plant who defeated Services 217-211. Mizoram beat Assam 208-201 for the bronze medal. The ladies team title went to Railways who defeated Steel Plant 212-207. Jharkhand stopped Uttar Pradesh 199-193 for the bronze medal.

C. Srither of Services, maintaining his form that helped him break three National records in the men's compound section, halted his teammate Chinglen Sana's big run with a 115-110 victory for the gold medal. Isiah R. Sanam of AP, pilot by profession, stopped Kh. Ratan Kumar of Services 114-110 for the third place. Srither's maiden crown underlined the fact that no defending champion ever won the title again in five editions!

Cat among pigeons

Jhano Hansdah, who found the going tough in the recurve division during pre-2005 days, was one of the first archers to jump into compound bandwagon when this form of archery was introduced at the 2005 Ernakulam National. Since then she dominated this division except last year when then reigning Junior Champion, Namita Yadav, annihilated Jhano in the semifinals. Now the veteran was back where she belonged to. In a revenge contest Jhano took the women's compound individual Olympic round gold beating her state mate and defending champion Namita Yadav 112-109. Anjali Kumari of Delhi downed Manjudha Soy of Jharkhand for the bronze medal 105 (X)-105(9). Both tied at 105 and in the one-arrow shoot out Anjali got a perfect X (10 points) as against Manjudha's 9.

Services proved too good for Assam in the men's team event handing out a 229-215 defeat for the gold medal. Railways defeated AP 218-211 for the bronze medal. The women's team title went to Jharkhand who out-shot Punjab 216-195. AP took bronze beating Delhi 196-188.

DAY 3 - Highlights

C. Srither of Services established another record in the men's compound individual total where he garnered 1,368 points out of 1,440 at the end of the FITA round. Srither, who broke the men's 50 and 30m distance records earlier, obliterated his teammate Kh. Ratan Kumar's record of 1,357 points set at Jamshedpur in 2008.

Second placed Isiah R. Sanam of Andhra Pradesh also broke the old mark with a score of 1358 and third placed Arjun Rao of Jharkhand equaled it with an effort of 1357.

The Services team missed the team total record by one point as the threesome of Srither (1368), Kh. Ratan Kumar (1353) and M. Chinglen Sana (1334) totaled 4055 which fell short of the existing mark held by Services 4056 set last year at Jamshedpur.

AP was second with 4007 and Madhya Pradesh was third with 3998.

There was nothing spectacular in the men's recurve section as Services' Vishwash took the individual honours after the FITA round. His total of 1328 points gave him the top place while Mangal Singh Champia of Railways (1327) and Jayanta Talukdar of Steel Plant (1321) followed the leader.

Steel Plant Sports Board took the team total honours with a score of 3916 points. Services (3876) and Jharkhand (3791) followed in the second and third places, respectively.

V. Pranitha, the youngest Olympian, pipped two seniors, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Dola Banerjee, both of Railways to take the top place in the women's recurve individual standing with a total of 1324 points. Bombayla was second with 1320 and Dola was third with 1316.

In the team standing, it was Railways which stood head and shoulder above the rest with a total of 3915. Railways was followed by Steel Plant Sports Board with 3885 and Jharkhand with 3736.

Veteran Jhano Hansdah hogged the limelight in the women's compound category emerging the leading individual scorer with a total of 1373 points. Her teammates Namita Yadav (1339) and Manjudha Soy (1333) were second and third respectively.

These three combined to give Jharkhand the top spot in the team standing with a total of 4045. Punjab (3855) and Delhi (3841) finished a distant second and third respectively.

DAY 2 - Highlights

Three National records established

Olympian Mangal Singh Champia of Railways (men's recurve) and C. Srither of Services (men's compound) produced sterling performances on the second day of the 29th Senior National Archery Championship at Pune on Wednesday.

Champia accumulated 356 points in the 30m distance to rewrite Jayanta Talukdar's (SPSB) National record of 355/360 established at the 26th National at Kolkata in 2006. A year later Delek Angchok of ITBP also touched 355 at the 27th edition at Vijayawada.

The new kid on the block from Services, C. Srither, emerged the hero of the day breaking two National records in the men's 50 and 30m events in the compound sections.

In the 50m event, Srither scored 348 points which bettered Avdesh Raghav of ITBP's record of 346 set at 27th edition at Vijayawada in 2007. Srither also broke Nirmal Kumar of CRPF's 30m record of 358 set at 2007 by garnering world class 359 out of 360 points. Chungda Sherpa of Sikkim also scored 359 points but had to settle for the silver place due to Srither's more number of 10 pointers. Both had same number of Xs (35 each), Srither had 21, 10-pointers as against Sherpa's 11.

DAY 1 - Highlights

Vishwash of Services and Olympian Mangal Singh Champia of Railways held off a stiff challenge from two of the most outstanding Steel Plant archers, Arjuna Awardee Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee, to win gold medals in the 90m and 70m recurve event for men in the 29th Senior National Archery Championship at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune on Tuesday.

Kuldeep Kumar of Madhya Pradesh and C. Srither of Services cornered all the glory in the men's compound event winning gold medals in the 90 and 70m events

None of the four events, however, produced a record.

Summary Results

Detailed Results

MEDAL TALLY

NAME	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE	TOTAL
Jharkhand	10	8	5	23
Services Sports Control Board	9	5	6	20
Indian Railways	7	1	7	15
Steel Plant Spsorts Board	5	9	2	16
Madhya Pradesh	1	0	0	1
Punjab	0	3	0	3
Mizoram	0	2	2	4
Chandigarh	0	2	1	3
Assam	0	2	0	2
Andhra Pradesh	0	1	5	6
Maharashtra	0	1	0	1
Delhi	0	0	2	2
Sikkim	0	0	1	1
Total	32	34	31	97
Note: Two extra silver medals were awarded and one bronze medal was withheld in the women's compound 30m event due to three-way tie

PLACE	NAME	STATE	SCORE
EVENT: 90 MTS
GOLD	VISHWASH	SERVICES SPORTS CONTROL BOARD	314/360
SILVER	RAHUL BANERJEE	STEEL PLANT SPORTS BOARD	303/360 (6)
BRONZE	JAYANTA TALUKDAR	STEEL PLANT SPORTS BOARD	303/360 (4)
EVENT: 70 MTS
GOLD	MANGAL SINGH CHAMPIA	INDIAN RAILWAY	334/360
SILVER	JAYANTA TALUKDAR	STEEL PLANT SPORTS BOARD	333/360
BRONZE	RAHUL BANEREJEE	STEEL PLANT SPORTS BOARD	331/360
EVENT: 50 MTS
GOLD	VISHWASH	SSCB	339/360
SILVER	RAHUL BANERJEE	SPSB	335/360
BRONZE	MUNI RAM TIRKEY (IND)	SSCB	334/360(17,5)
EVENT: 30 MTS
GOLD	MANGAL SINGH CHAMPIA	RAILWAYS	356/360
SILVER	JAYANTA TALUKDAR	SPSB	353/360
BRONZE	VISHWASH	SSCB	351/360

PLACE	NAME	STATE	SCORE
EVENT: 70 MTS
GOLD	V.PRANITHA	SPSB	318/360
SILVER	RIMIL BIRIULY	SPSB	317/360
BRONZE	DOLA BANERJEE	RAILWAY	314/360
EVENT: 60 MTS
GOLD	L. BOMBAYLA DEVI	RAILWAY	334/360(13,5)
SILVER	PRANITHA	SPSB	334/360(13,3)
BRONZE	DOLA BANERJEE	RAILWAY	333/360
EVENT: 50 MTS
GOLD	L. BOMBAYLA DEVI	RAILWAY	328/360
SILVER	PRANITHA	SPSB	327/360
BRONZE	DOLA BANERJEE	RAILWAY	317/360
EVENT: 30 MTS
GOLD	DOLA BANERJEE	RAILWAYS	352/360
SILVER	DIPIKA KUMARI	JHAR	349/360
BRONZE	TARIKA SHARMA	CHANDIGARH	346/360(24)

PLACE	NAME	STATE	SCORE
EVENT: 90 MTS
GOLD	KULDEEP KUMAR	MADHYA PRADESH	329/360
SILVER	KH RATAN SINGH	SERVICES SPORTS CONTROL BOARD	326/360
BRONZE	ISAIHA SANAM	ANDHRA PRADESH	324/360
EVENT: 70 MTS
GOLD	C SRITHER	SERVICES SPORTS CONTROL BOARD	345/360
SILVER	ISAIHA SANAM	ANDHRA PRADESH	342/360(21)
BRONZE	KH RATAN SINGH	SERVICES SPORTS CONTROL BOARD	342/360(20)
EVENT: 50 MTS
GOLD	C SRITHER	SSCB	348/360
SILVER	KH RATAN KUMAR	SSCB	343/360
BRONZE	PALTON HANSDA	I RAILWAY	343/360
EVENT: 30 MTS
GOLD	C SRITHER	SSCB	359/360(35,21)
SILVER	CHUNGDA SHERPA	SIKKIM	359/360(35,11)
BRONZE	AMRINDER SINGH	PUNJAB	356/360

PLACE	NAME	STATE	SCORE
EVENT: 70 MTS
GOLD	JHANU HANSDA	JHARKHAND	333/360
SILVER	NAMITA YADAV	JHARKHAND	332/360
BRONZE	BHEIGYABATI CHANU (IND)	JHARKHAND	325/360
EVENT: 60 MTS
GOLD	JHANU HANSDA	JHARKHAND	343/360(20)
SILVER	BHEIGYABATI CHANU (IND)	JHARKHAND	343/360(19)
BRONZE	MANJUDHA SOY	JHARKHAND	340/360
EVENT: 50 MTS
GOLD	JHANU HANSDA	JHARKHAND	340/360
SILVER	SUMANLATA	JHARKHAND	336/360
BRONZE	MANJUDHA SOY	JHARKHAND	332/360(16)
EVENT: 30 MTS
GOLD	JHANU HANSDA	JHARKHAND	357/360
SILVER (DUE TO TIE)	ANJALI KUMARI	JHARKHAND	354/360(20,10)
	ASRITA KERKETTA	JHARKHAND	354/360(20,10)
	JAYALAKSHMI SARIKONDA	MAHARASTRA	354/360(20,10)
BRONZE	NO BRONZE MEDAL AWARDED DUE TO 3 SILVER MEDALS

Summary Results

Detailed Results