India dominates Third Asian Grand Prix and First Asian Youth Archery Championships

Dhaka, May 31: The Third Asian Grand Prix and First Asian Youth Archery Championships concluded at Dhaka with India dominating both the events thoroughly. In the absence of any senior Indian archer due to hectic preparation for the World Cup (Stage II) to be held at Antalya (Turkey) early next month, the Indian contingent had only juniors in the recurve section and a full Indian squad in the compound section.

The Indian archers picked up eight gold, three silver and as many bronze medal at the third Asian GP to stand head and shoulder above the 14 other countries who participated in the continental meet. Singapore was a distant second with one gold, two silver and a bronze medal.

Among the 16 archers named for the Indian squad for the third Asian GP, senior team discard Rimil Buriuly was the most consistent winning as many as three gold medals, one individual and two teams. The Jamshedpur-based archer won the recurve women's individual, recurve women's team in the company of Sumita Kumari and Dipali Boro and recurve mixed team gold in association with Atanu Das.

Veteran Indian archer, who can be considered as a "grandma" of the present lot, Jhano Hansdah won an individual gold in compound women's section and partnering Gagandeep Kaur Bawa and Namita Yadav took the team gold as well.

Young Atanu Das, who earned India a Youth Olympic berth in 2009 at Ogden (US) also won two gold medals through recurve individual and mixed team and a team bronze. L. Haridas Singh took the men's compound individual gold medal and Chinnraju Srither, Ch. Jignas and Anil Kumar got India the eighth gold medal by winning the compound men's team championship.

The three silver medal came through Gagandeep Kaur (compound women's individual), Jignas (compound men's individual) and Srither and Gagandeep (compound mixed team).

The three bronze medals came via Namita Yadav (compound women's individual), Srither (compound men's individual) and Atanu Das, Rajgovind Swansi and Somnath Mondal (recurve men's team).

The eight-member Indian Youth team did a wonderful job of picking up three gold medals, three silvers and one bronze.

Pawan Xalxo was the toast of the Indian team capturing two gold medals out of three India won. He won the recurve boys' individual and joined forces with Parash Nath and Hemanta Basumatary to wrest the team gold as well. The third gold medals came through recurve girls' team consisting of Mainaw Narzary, Himani Boro and Gunjan Kumari.

Himani Boro and Hemanta Basumatary, both from Assam, took the silver medal in the girls' and boys' recurve individual section and the third silver came through recurve mixed team comprising Mainaw and Pawan Xalxo.

Mainaw Narzary earned India the lone bronze medal in the recurve girls' individual.

As many as 123 archers from 14 countries participated in the two tournaments which were inaugurated at BKSP, Savur, nearly 40 k.m. away from the capital city of Dhaka. As many as 37 officials accompanied the teams. Interestingly, two Indian coaches turned out for Bangladesh and Iraq. Nisht Das, younger brother of late Soumen Das, has been with the Bangladesh National team for many years now and Delhi-born Lokesh Chand has been handling the Iraqi National side for a year now. Indian Archery wishes the two a very successful career.

All the finals were held at the Bangladesh Army Stadium, Dhaka, in front of a well attended gathering.