The 1st All-India Indoor Archery tournament concluded at the Dayanand Bandodkar sports complex at Peddem-Mapusa on Friday. The six-day competition was organised by Amateur Archery Association Goa under the aegis of Archery Association of India and Sports Authority of Goa. More than 1300 archers from across under-10 to the seniors category took part in the first-ever all-India indoor archery tournament to be held in India.
On the concluding day, the competition witnessed over 300 participants with no age bar where even youngsters went head to head with the best in the business as India’s Compound world cup winning team member Pragati had turned up to soak in the atmosphere and compete in a new challenge.
Maharashtra’s Aditya Pawar and Anshika Kumari of Bihar won the Gold medals in men and women Recurve categories respectively.
Rajasthan’s archers dominated the Compound event with Devansh Singh and Priya Gurjar claiming the gold medals in men and women categories respectively. Rajasthan’s Harsh Kumar and Yeshwant Saini bagged silver and bronze medals respectively in men’s category while Haryana’s Deepshikha and Varuni walked away with silver and bronze medal in women’s event respectively.
In the Indian round, Haryana’s Ravi and West Bengal’s Sujata Mandi clinched the top prize in men’s and women’s events respectively.
Avni Malik and Deepshikha from Haryana praised the organisers for providing infrastructure beyond their expectations for the maiden indoor tournament.
“The facilities were better than I had experienced at the Asian University tournament. I hope the organisers conduct this tournament every year in Goa,” emphasised the star in the making i.e Deepshikha.
Avni compared the atmosphere to that seen in indoor events abroad. “It was amazing atmosphere with high level arrangements seen abroad for indoor tournaments,” stated the rising star of Indian Archery.
