Koda inaugurates second Commonwealth Archery Championship

Jamshedpur, Nov 8 (UNI) Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda today declared open the second Commonwealth Archery Championship at the J R D Tata sports complex here.

About 120 archers and officials from 10 Commonwealth countries- Australia, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Malaysia, Northern Ireland, Bangladesh, Wales, Scotland and India are participating in the championship being organised by the Archery Association of India (AAI) under the aegis of FITA and Commonwealth Games Federation.

The championship is being hosted by Tata Steel in association with AAI and Jharkhand Archery Association (JAA).

The main round would begin from tomorrow and be concluded on November 11, officials said.

The championship will be held in men's and women's individual and team's Recurve, Compound and Olympic rounds.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Koda urged the Commonwealth Games Federation to include archery in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

The Federation's meeting slated to be held in Malayasia on November 15 would decided whether to include archery in the forthcoming Commonwealth games.

Mr Koda said the government was committed to upgrade the games' standard in the state and planned to open academies to promote Football, athletics and archery.

Mr Koda said ''Archery is the state's traditional tribal game and hence is the cultural identity of the state.'' UNI BDG PP AY RAI1711