Indian men's recurve team wins gold medal

India's Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar ensured the men's team recurve gold medal annihilating the United States by 218 points to 214 in the final of the World Cup archery (Stage II) at Antalya on June 10, 2010.

The Indian troika proved too good for the Americans and maintained the lead throughout the final to win the first gold medal of the series. India, who reached the final of the Porec World Cup in May, failed to beat Italy and settled for silver.

Brady Ellison, Richard Johnson and Vic Wunderle represented the US team.

India led by 54 points to 50 in the first end of six arrows to take a commanding four point lead. In the second end of six arrows, however, the Indians surrendered three points (51-54) to enjoy a lead of just a point (105-104).

India regained five points lead in the third end of six arrows with Banrejee and Champia hitting bull's eye twice each to take the score to 57-53. This gave India an overall lead of 162-157. In the final end of six arrows, the Indians scored 56 as against their opponents' 57 to win the contest at 218-214.

Dola Banerjee will play her semifinal match in the women's individual recurve section on June 11.

Indian Men's team in final, Dola Banerjee in semis

The Indian men's recurve team moved into the second successive final of the ongoing World Cup archery series. The crack combination of Mangal Singh Champia, Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee, will take on the United States of America in the title round on June 10, 2010.

Dola Banerjee entered the semifinals of the individual section of this Stage II tournament at Antalya in Turkey. Her next opponent will be Victoriya Koval of Ukraine on June 11.

The Indian men's team, seeded No. 1, first ousted Belarus 224-211 in the pre-quarterfinals, downed Russia 224-219 in the quarterfinals and got rid of Japan 216-213 in the semifinals. India had lost to Italy in the final at the Porec World Cup in May.

Apart from Dola, only Talukdar and reigning Cadet World Champion Deepika Kumari reached quarterfinals before bowing out. Talukdar went down to Shungo Tabata of Japan and Deepika lost to Inna Stepanova of Russia.

Mangal Singh Champia was the most disappointing of the lot losing his first round match to Sermet Chinar of Turkey. Tarundeep Rai was eliminated in the second round by England's Simon Terry. Rahul Banerjee, having got the second seeding, fell to Xiangqing Jing of China in the pre-quarterfinals.

Laishram Bombayla Devi was beaten by Elif Begunhan Unsal of Turkey in the pre-quarterfinals and Rimil Buruily failed to go past the first round.

The Indian men's archery team, consisting of Rahul Banerjee, Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia, topped a strong field in the recurve bow team qualification round of the World Cup archery (Stage II) meet at Antalya on June 8, 2010. The threesome totalled 2018 points after two rounds of 70m where each archer shot 72 arrows.

The women's team also finished among the top teams occupying the third position with a total of 1939 points behind China and Russia.

Rahul Banerjee emerged the best Indian archer scoring 679 points to take the second position behind Brady Ellison of the United States (680 points). Talukdar (674) was sixth, Champia (665) was 16th and Tarundeep Rai (662) was 21st.

In the women's section, Laishram Bombayla Devi took the 12th spot with 650 points. Sixteen-year-old National champion Deepika Kumari (647) was 15th, veteran Dola Banerjee (642) was 20th and Rimil Buruily (623) was a poor 43rd.

In the team elimination round, the Indian men's team will take on 16th ranked Belarus while the third placed Indian women's side will meet 14th ranked Turkey in the round of 16.

The Archery Association of India (AAI) did not sent the compound teams.

Teams Announced for World Cup Stage II

India will send an eight-member Indian recurve archery team to participate in the upcoming World Cup Stage II at Antalya, Turkey, from June 7-11.

Naming the squad on May 17, 2010, after a four-day trial held at the SAI, Eastern Centre, here, P.N. Mukherjee, secretary general of the Archery Association of India (AAI), said no compound squad would be sent to Antalya. Instead, the eight selected compound archers would be sent to Chinese Taipei for the third Asian Grand Prix from June 28 to July 2.

A 16-member Indian contingent took part in the World Cup Stage I at Porec, Croatia, from May 4 to 8, but could win only a silver medal in the men's team recurve event.

The Selection Trial Results:

Recurve Men and Women

Compound Men and Women

The squad for Antalya :

Recurve Men:	Tarundeep Rai (Services), Mangal Singh Champia (Railways), Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee (both Steel Plant),
Recurve Women:	Dola Banerjee, Laishram Bombayla Devi (both Railways), Deepika Kumari and Rimil Buriuly (both Steel Plant).
Coaches:	Limba Ram, Lokesh Chand Pal and Wang Woo Lee (Korea).

The squad for Chinese Taipei :

Compound Men:	C. Srither, Kh. Ratan Singh (both Services), Ritul Chatterjee (Andhra Pradesh) and I.R. Sanam (Railways)
Compound Women:	Sakro Besra (Railways), Vrushali Gorle (Maharastra) Jhano Hansdah and Namita Yadav (both Jharkhand).
Coaches:	R.B. Tamang, Harender Singh and D. Saiswary.