India’s young archery squad ready to showcase talent at Asian championships in Dhaka

India’s young archery will be seen in action during the 22nd Asian Archery Championships that will commence on Saturday in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The official practice is scheduled for Saturday, while the preliminary round will start Sunday. The continental competition will conclude on November 19.

Maharashtra’s teenage national champion in men’s recurve Parth Sushant Salunkhe, is among the four-member recurve team competing at the Asian Archery Championships.

Parth,18, had won team gold at the junior world championships this year and also competed at the senior world championships held in Yankton, USA.

Tokyo Olympian Praveen Ramesh Jadhav, Kapil and Sukhchain Singh are the other three archers in the recurve squad.

Prominent recurve archers like Deepika Kumari, Atanu Das and Jayanta Talukdar failed to impress at the national championships held earlier in October.

There were high hopes from Deepika at the Tokyo Olympic Games in July, but she failed to live up to expectations in quadrennial games. She lost in the quarterfinals of the individual recurve round.

The Indian archery team was formed based on selection trials held in Jharkhand

Pramod Chandurkar is the secretary general of the Archery Association of India (AAI). He said the 16-member Indian team was selected during national selection trials held on October 11 and 12 in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. It includes eight members who will take part in the compound event.

“After the national championships held earlier in October in Jamshedpur, the federation conducted national selection trials to pick a team for the continental competition. Top four each in recurve and compound discipline were selected to represent India in Dhaka competition,” said Pramod.

The continental competition in Dhaka, said Pramod, will act as a platform to build up the national squad for the 2022 season.

The Indian team will be accompanied by four coaches and two physios. Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, India’s high performance director in archery, will also tour Dhaka.

Team

Men (recurve): Kapil, Parth Sushant Salunkhe, Sukhain Singh, Pravin Ramesh Jadhav. Women: Ridhi, Ankita Bhakat, Komalika Bari, Madhu Vedwan.

Men (compound): Abhishek Verma, Rishab Yadav, Mohit, Aman Saini. Women: Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Muskan Kirar, Parneet Kaur, Priya Gurjar.