PANAJI: Uttar Pradesh men and Maharashtra women’s team bagged the gold medal in the Indian Round category on Thursday at the 42nd NTPC Junior National Archery Championship organised by Amateur Archery Association Goa at Sports Authority of Goa ground, Campal.
Kerala had to settle for the silver medal in the men’s section after going down 0-6 to UP, while Jharkhand clinched the silver medal in the women’s category as they lost the final by an identical scoreline of 0-6 to Maharashtra.
Chhattisgarh got the better of Telangana 5-3 in the men’s team bronze medal match while Haryana overcame Uttar Pradesh’s challenge 29-28 in the shoot-off after the tie was locked at 4 sets apiece.
Maharashtra displayed a superb form all along the day as Samruddhi Pawar registered the top score of 660 across the 40metre and 30metre qualification stage worth a maximum of 720 points. Aniket Gawade with 652 points, combined with Samruddhi, to take Maharashtra to the top spot in the Mixed team category. Jharkhand occupy the second position while Haryana are in third place. The elimination round will be conducted on the concluding day i.e Friday.
Manipur failed to live up to their reputation in the Indian round but on the individual front, there was some consolation for the NorthEastern archery powerhouse when Md Amir Arshad Khan emerged with the top score of 668 in the men’s section. His team-mate Chingakham Bison Singh clinching third spot with 655 points. Jharkhand archer Mohit Kumar notched up second position with 659 points.
Goa, who had registered some encouraging results earlier in the national championship rounds of Recurve and Compound, had a dismal outing to start the Indian round as the men’s team finished second-last in 26th place while the women were a little better at 22nd position among 25 teams. Nevertheless, the hosts team gained top level exposure and with the facilities here now, can get better and better in the future.
