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The World Archery Awards nominees were officially announced on November 3 2023 and Indians have much to cheer about with four Indian athletes and a coach being included in the list.
Winners for the six category trophies – recurve men, recurve women, compound men, compound women, para men, and para women – will be selected via public voting, which will open on November 10, 2023.
The overall Athlete of the Year prize is awarded to the most decorated athlete, selected by a panel of journalists.
Teenager Aditi Swami, who hails from Maharashtra, is nominated in the Breakthrough category. Aditi was most recently a part of the gold medal-winning women's compound archery team at the 2023 Asian Games.
Ojas Pravin Deotale from Nagpur and Maharashtra's Prathamesh Jawkar are nominated in the Compound Men's category. Ojas won gold in the men's compound event at the Asian Games while Prathamesh was part of the men's team compound archery group that won gold by beating South Korea.
Aditi Swami is nominated again in the Compound women's category along with the Asian Games women's compound archery event gold medallist Jyothi Surekha Vennam, who hails from Andhra Pradesh.
16-year-old armless archer Sheetal Devi from Jammu and Kashmir rose to fame when she won three medals, including a gold, at the recently concluded 2023 Asian Para Games. She is nominated in the Para Women's category.
Former compound archery competitor Sergio Pagni, the Italian who coached the Indian Compound Archery Team at the Asian Games, is nominated in the Coach category.
World Archery Awards - A longstanding recognition of archers' achievements
Launched in 2011, the World Archery Awards has been one of the sport's biggest accolades and is awarded to sportsmen and women, coaches and officials. This year's list of Indian nominees is a big jump from last year's list, wherein only one Indian - Indranil Datta was nominated in the coach's category.
Great Britain's Ella Gibson was awarded the "Athlete of the Year" accolade after a decision was made by the panel of journalists. Barebow archer Cinzia Noziglia from Italy was the runner-up, while Olympic champion An San and world para champion Matt Stutzman missed out on the illustrious award.
The awards are provided by World Archery, which is the international federation for the sport of archery. It has more than 160 member nations that promote and regulate the sport in their countries. The organization looks after most of the major archery tournaments, including the world championships.
The awards have long been a prestigious connotation for upcoming and established athletes who seek vindication for their year-long efforts. With major events like the Asian Games having concluded and the Paris Olympics set to take place next year, athletes will have a golden chance to shine and be nominated.
The public voting will be open till early 2024, after which the results will be announced on the World Archery's official website.
