ARCHERY ASSOCIATION OF INDIA R E P O R T OF THE SECRETARY GENERAL for the period 1st May, 2010 to 31st August, 2011 Dear Members of the Archery Family It is my proud privilege and pleasure to place this Secretary General’s Report before AAI General Council which provides with an overview of the achievements and activities of the Association during the intervening phase from May, 2010 to August, 2011. First of all, I would like to mention that a very successful Archery event that was conducted during the Commonwealth Games. India and England demonstrated their dominance in both the Recurve and Compound events. This was the first multi-sports games where all five continents won medals in Archery. The house-full spectators’ stand at the Yamuna Sports Complex has left an unforgettable mark in the minds of participants, media and FITA. We have had many important events since our last meeting including two multisport events with Archery as part of their programme. Another busy period ended and we ought to be pleased with the glorious outcome in terms of achievements earned by our archers. Besides winning 3 Gold, 1 Silver, 4 Bronze in 2010-Commonwealth Games-Delhi, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze in 2010-Asian Games-Ghanzhou, 1 Silver in World Championship-Torino, 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze Meals in Youth World-Legnica and 2 Gold, 9 Silver, 3 Bronze in World Cups, Indian archers won a haul of 20 Gold, 21 Silver and 16 Bronze Medals in international competitions during this period. There has been an obvious growth of activities in the AAI over the past 5 years. Since 2006, this growth has considerably increased owing to introduction of World Cup event by FITA. There is no sign of any possible change in this evolution. The future workload has to be anticipated with new resources. I, on behalf of whole archery and sports fraternity and on my personal behalf take this pleasure opportunity to congratulate our President, Prof.Vijay Kumar Malhotra for shouldering the responsibility of Indian Olympic Association as Acting President. Due to his untiring and dedicated efforts, the untenable sports bill for controlling over the activities of sports federations tabled by the sports ministry has been turned down by the Union Cabinet. This is making a difference and the tense environment of Indian sports has now improved in a positive manner. Deepika Kumari –‘THE CURRENT STAR OF INDIAN ARCHERY’ The 17-year-young Ace Archer, Deepika Kumari (5 th seeded), who was entered in Indian team hardly 3 years back, deserves to be singled out for her individual contribution to scale new heights to Indian archery. She proved herself truly as the ‘Current Star of Indian Archery’ through her extraordinary performances in International and National competitions. The year-2010 has brought her to the public's notice when she won the Women Recurve Champion’s Title in Commonwealth Games at home ground. Holding the Cadet World Champion’s title, she recently occupied the top slot of the podium in Junior World Championship-Poland. She becomes the youngest Indian archer who earned the honour to qualify for the Olympics. She started her victorious journey with Silver Medal in 3 rd World Cup-USA in August 2010, thereafter she never looked back and bagged Individual Silver Medal in 4 th World Cup-Shanghai and qualified for World Cup Final -2010. Then, she won historical Commonwealth Individual and Team Champions’ Titles. She was the top scorer amongst team members that clinched Team Bronze Medal in Asian Games-Guanzhou. In 2011, she was the part of Bronze winning team and 2 nd ranked mixed team in 2 nd World Cup-Antalaya in June. Her creditable contribution as a team member of Recurve Women for settling Silver Medal in the World Championship-Torino for the first time since the inception of Indian archery is worth mentioning. The tremendous feet in 3 rd World Cup-Ogden awarded her Individual as well as Team Silver Medals . In view of her outstanding results in 2011, she has been qualified for the World Cup Final to be stage in Istanbul on 24-25 September, 2011. The laudable successes accomplished by Indian archery are :- ••• Indian Recurve Women team obtained 2 nd position and Recurve Men attained 7 th position in overall FITA world ranking. Deepika Kumari and Jayant Talukdar acquired 5th and 15th ranks respectively in world ranking. …….2/- : 2 : ••• Indian most experienced squad - Mangal Singh Champia, Jayanta Talukdar and Tarundeep Rai bagged ‘Silver Medal’ at the 1st World Cup in Crotia in May, 2010. ••• Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia occupied the top slot on the podium at the 2 nd World Cup in Turkey in June-July, 2010. ••• Recurve women team of Deepika Kumari, Dola Banerjee and L.Bombayla Devi won ‘Silver Medal’ at the 3 rd World Cup in USA in August, 2010. ••• The fearsome trio - Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee possessed the ‘Gold Medal’ at the 4 th World Cup held in China in August, 2010. ••• Deepika Kumari took Individual Silver and Jayanta Talukdar brought Individual Bronze medal at the 4 th World Cup 2010. ••• Jayanta Talukdar, Deepika Kumari and Dola Banerjee were declared as qualifier for the World Cup Final held in UK in September, 2010. Jayanta Talukdar won Bronze Medal in the World Cup Final 2010 at Edinburg (UK). ••• India dominated the Commonwealth Games-Delhi by putting total 8 medals in their quiver including 3 Gold, 1 Silver and 4 Bronze. ••• Deepika Kumari and Rahul Banerjee won the title of “Commonwealth Individual Champion” in Recurve Women and Recurve Men Categories. ••• Indian Recurve Women team – Dola, Deepika and Bombayla won Gold at CWG. ••• Jayanta Taludar and Dola Banerjee registered win in Bronze Medal matches at CWG. ••• Compound Men team – C.Srither, Ritul & Jignas bagged Silver medal and Compound Women team- Jhanu, Bheigyabati and Gagandeep bagged Bronze Medals in CWG 2010. ••• Tarundeep Rai succeeded to win Individual Silver Medal at 16 th Asian Games –Ghanzhou for the first time in the history of Indian archery. ••• Recurve Men and Recurve Women team managed to get Bronze Medals at Guanzhou. ••• Tarundeep Rai Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee bagged ‘Silver Medal’ at the 1 st Stage World Cup held in Croatia from 2-7 May, 2011. It is worth mentioning that they entered into semi final defeating world champion- Korea. ••• Deepika Kumari, L.Bombayla Devi, and Chekrovolu Swuro settled with ‘Bronze Medal’ at the 2nd Stage World Cup held in Turkey in June, 2011. ••• Fantastic combination – Jayanta and Deepika won Silver Medal in Mixed event at 2 nd World Cup-Turkey for the first time. ••• By virtue of their best ever performance in World Championship-Italy in July, 2011, Recurve women team – Deepika, Bombayala and Chekrovolu got Silver Medal. ••• The above women team composition secured three quota places for India for the 2012-Olympic Games –London. Jayanta Talukdar also earned one individual berth for Olympics. ••• Deepika Kumari, Chekrovolu Swuro and Bombayla Devi grabbed ‘Silver Medal’ at the 3 rd Stage World Cup – Shanghai in August, 2011. ••• Deepika Kumari showed tremendous feet and won ‘Indvl.Silver Medal’ at the 3 rd World Cup. ••• Deepika Kumari emerged as “Junior Recurve Girls Champion at Youth World Championship- Poland in August, 2011. ••• Energetic Junior Recurve Boys’ Team - Rajgovind, Atanu & Somnath Mondal gave a Silver Medal to India. ••• Junior Recurve Girls’ (Deepika, Rimil and Seema) Team and Cadet Mixed Recurve (Binod and Mainaw) hit the target for ‘Bronze Medals’ ••• Based on wonderful performance in World Cup-2011, Deepika Kumari secured berth for the World Cup Final 2011 to be held at Istanbul from 25 th to 26 th September, 2011. ••• Indian contingent returned home with a large number of medals at Asian Grand Prix and Asian Youth Events held during the year 2011. ……3/- : 3 : : 4 : : 5 : INTERNATIONAL COMPEITTIONS a) 1st World Cup Archery Tournament-2010 A 16-member Indian Archery Team participated in the 1st Stage of the World Cup Archery Tournament held at Porec, Croatia from 2 nd to 8th May, 2010. The glimpse is as under:- Recurve Men Recurve Women 1) Tarundeep Rai 1) Dola Banerjee 2) Jayanta Talukdar 2) L. Bombayla Devi 3) Mangal Singh Champia 3) Chekrovolu Swuro 4) Rahul Banerjee 4) Rimil Biriuly Compound Men Compound Women 1) Chinna Raju Srither 1) Gangandeep Kaur 2) Ratan Singh Khuraijam 2) Jhano Hansda 3) C.H. Jignas 3) Bheigyabati Chanu 4) Isaiah Rajender Sanam 4) Manjudha Soy Coaches : 1) Shri. Lalremsanga Chhangte 2) Ms. Purnima Manhato 3) Shri Richpal Singh Salaria 4) Shri Wang Woo Lee Physiotherapist : Ms. Nita Kavuluri • Recurve Men Team “SILVER MEDAL” The three-member team of Mangal Singh Champia, Jayanta Talukdar and Tarundeep Rai went down to Italy in the final after having topped the ranking round as No.1 team and settled for the ‘SILVER MEDAL’ India scored 218 as against Italy's 221 in the title round. They easily crushed the challenges of Australia, Netherland and Great Britain in elimination round. Mangal, Tarundeep and Rahul began well but bowed out in third round. In a way, it was a commendable show by the Indian threesome as all most all the top archery nations in the world were in fray in the championship excepting the world champion Korea. • Recurve Women Team Indian women’s team finished at 9 th position. The Indians display in the individual championship can not be termed as satisfactory as only Rimil Buruily could reach at quarterfinals level, • Compound Men & Women Teams There was nothing special occurred to mention in compound category except one women team’s win over Germany which placed them at 5 th position.