Archers assert of winning elusive medal in Asian Games

New Delhi, Aug 30 (UNI) Encouraged by two Arjuna Awards and fine performances in recent years, Indian archers and officials today asserted that the country has ''considerably closed in the gap'' with top international competitors and could finally break the medal jinx in this sport in the forthcomimng Asian Games in Doha.

Two archers -- Dola Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai -- received Arjuna Awards for 2005 in recognition of their consistent performances over the year in international competitions from President APJ Abdul Kalam at Rashtrapati Bhavan here yesterday.

They were today felicitated by the Archery Association of India for winning the prestigious awards at a function at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here today.

''We are hoping for a medal in the team event in Doha, if not gold. In individual events anything is possible and anybody can win a medal. It depends on what happens on the day of the competition,'' Banerjee and Tarundeep told reporters at the felicitation function.

India has not won any medal so far in the Asian Games though the country had won medals in other Asian competitions.

''We are considerably closing in the gap with top countries such as Korea and China in the last four years and these years saw the country winning medals in various international competitions,'' the two archers said.

They said given some more years and improvement in coaching and standard of equipments, the current crop of players would be able to win medals in top international copmpetitions such as the World Cup and Olympics.

Archery Association of India President Vijay Kumar Malhotra agreed with the two archers and expressed happiness for bagging the awards after a gap of 14 years.

He said the two Arjuna awards were a recognition of the good performance by archers in recent years.

Olympic Council of Asia President Randhir Singh, who was also present on the occasion, said after weightlifting and shooting, archery was one discipline which has started doing well in international competitions.

By winning the prestigious awards, Dola and Tarundeep join Krishna Ghatak, Shyam Lal, Limba Ram and Sanjeev Kumar Singh who won the Award in 1981, 1989, 1991 and 1992 respectively.

Dola Banerjee first shot into national limelight when she first won the Junior National Archery Championship in 1993. The 26-year-old archer from West Bengal is the first Indian woman to win individual gold medal in World Championship in Turkey last year.

She also stood 13th in individual event in the Athens Olympics in 2004, besides winning individual gold and team gold in the recently concluded SAF Games in Colombo where India swept the medals in archey wiining all the four gold and four silver.

Tarundeep has also won medals in international competitions. The 22-year-old Sikkim lad's best performance had been the silver he won in the World Outdoor Target Archey in Madrid last year. He was also part of Indian team in Athens Olmpics.

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