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Parth Salunkhe and Ridhi of Sonepat’s National Center of Excellence (NCOE) claimed men and women’s recurve titles in the second edition of the Khelo India Archery Tournament.
The competition concluded late Sunday evening at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) training center in Sonepat, Haryana.
Parth, the newly crowned national champion, dominated the qualification round on Saturday. He shot 688 out of a possible 720 to top the chart in the qualification round. He kept his calm to win the title too.
Uttar Pradesh archer Kapil won second spot in the men’s category while Hurdup Tiriya of the All India Police Control Board (AIPCB) was third. Kapil was second in the qualification round while Hurdup was third.
Anushika from Punjab and Varsha Sona from NCOE were second and third respectively in the women’s recurve event.
Uttar Pradesh’s Neeraj Chauhan led the field in the junior section. He shot 681 in the qualification round and eventually the junior title. Sagar Sharma of Haryana and Vinayak Verma of Punjab took second and third spot, respectively in the junior group.
Competition was fairly intense in the cadet section as well. The top three ranked archers were neck and neck in the qualification round.
Haryana’s Agastya, who dominated the qualification round, was the clear winner in the medal round. Ajay Kumar Nagerwal of Rajasthan was second in the cadet section. Mahesh Kumawet of Rajasthan settled for third spot.
Ayushi Kadyan of NCOE walked away with junior women’s recurve title. Kirti and Reeta Sawaiyan of Haryana were second and third, respectively. Tashu Singh (Uttar Pradesh), Parmeet (Punjab) and Archisha Rana (Uttar Pradesh) won the top three positions in the cadet girls group.
In the two-day competition, 307 archers competed in senior, junior and cadet categories.
“To encourage archers individual and departmental teams like All India Police Control Board (AIPCB) were allowed to compete in the second edition of the Khelo India Archery Tournament,” official of the Archery Association of India (AAI) said. “The main aim was to give opportunities to athletes to compete regularly at the regional level.”
