Rousing welcome to bronze medallist Mangal Singh

Vijayawada, Dec 20 (UNI) The railway station here was busier this evening with a number of sports lovers coming to extend a warm welcome to archer Mangal Singh Champia, who brought laurels to the country by clinching a bronze medal in the team event in archery at the Asian Games in Doha.

The athletes and officials showered petals on Singh as he emerged from the Chennai-bound train.

Incidentally, this is the first ever medal for the country in archery at the Asian Games after the event was introduced.

The Jharkand-born archer, who has made Vijayawada his second home since 2000, was a student of Sanskrit College in Guntur and he is the coach-cum-archer at Volga Archery Academy.

Earlier, he emerged national champion in 1999 and his arrival has bolstered the image of Andhra Pradesh in the archery circuit.

He is being sponsored by Lakshmi Mittal Group since 2005, when he won the individual bronze and a team silver in the Commonwealth Games held at Jamshedpur last month.

His earlier achievement in overseas include gold at the Asian Grand Prix in Indonesia and silver at the World Championship in China in 2005.

Later talking to reporters, Mr Singh said he had scored 1,300 points against 1,333 points by the Korean team which bagged the gold.

He said he would have bagged the gold if the wind had not played the spoilsport. During the match there was strong gales of wind with a speed of 125 kmph blowing across the field.

He urged the authorities to provide adequate facilities to groom youngsters to patrticipate in international levels.

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