Despite lack of facilities Amravati girl, Buldhana boy make their mark

Nagpur, Aug 16

Although Indian archers failed to deliver their best in the recently concluded Tokyo Olympics, their youth counterparts made their mark in World Youth Archery Championships held in Poland.

In the said championship, India bagged eight gold, two silver, and five bronze medals.Despite lacking facilities, Manjiri Alone, who belongs to Nandgaon Khandeshwar village in Amravati district clinched individual bronze medal whereas Buldhana lad Mihir Apar was instrumental in winning gold medal for India in the team event. Manjiri is a student of Eklavya Gurukul School and participated in any international meet for the first time. She had also participated in the team event

Manjiri coached by Sadanand Jadhav secured bronze in the individual girls event by winning the final 6-4. In the team event, Manjiri, Avani and Tamanna won bronze defeating Germany 5-3. In boys team event, Mihir Apar along with Kaushal Dalal and Sahil Chaudhary bagged gold defeating USA 23--231. Earlier in the semis, they got the better of Turkey 232-230. However, in the individual event Mihir finished seventh.While expressing happiness over Indian archers' performance in the world youth championship, the general secretary of Archery Asociation of India (AAI) Pramod Chandurkar said, “ This is India's best-ever performance in the Youth World Archery Championship. We are very proud of all the medal-winning archers. The efforts put in by each and every member of the contingent was outstanding.”

About Vidarbha archers Chandurkar said both Manjiri and Mihir are talented archers and we are preparing budding archers for 2024-2028 Olympics

We have talent but lack resources: Jadhav

Sadanand Jadhav, the coach of Manjiri who runs Eklavya Archery Academy in Amravati district is elated over his disciple's performance but at the same time, he is worried over the future of academy. “ We are giving the training to around 100 archers in our academy free of cost but we lack resources. Most of our students belong to poor of middle-class families. Finance and lack of equipment is our main problem. I am worried about the future of academy. The government has allotted its Khelo India centres to only government institutions. We have also demanded one centre because the private academies in the country are playing an important role in shaping the career of sports persons. Our academy has produced three international medal winners, 60 national 18 university-level archers and so far 25 archers have secured government jobs,” he said.