Monday, July 9th 2007.
The recurve championships gets under way today with the womens event. The way it works is that today the women will shoot individually for their ranking places at three different distances, 70m, 50m and 30m after which they will be ranked as per their scores. India has three women here Dola Banerjee, Chekrovolu Swuro and Bombayla Devi all of which are vetrans and now need to step up. This is the first opportunity to qualify for Beijing and its always an advantage to secure your berth early.
The field here is a strong one, there are 90 countries participating and everyone here agrees that archery worldwide is growing. India is a country where archery has comes naturally to some living in the tribal belt and now it is just a matter of bringing in that expertise to make the push. This is harder than it seems since Korea which is the best is not so liberal in parting with their knowledge and it is tight lipped about their advantage. However the reason i am here is to secure that exact knowledge.
Archery in europe and americas is played on a part time basis whereas in Asia (including us) we play it full time. This in my opinion is a distinct advantage and a great opportunity for an upcoming coach to make their mark. However to get someone to come and live in india is a tall task and this is a challenge we face in all sports.
That being said if our girls can have a good showing here today I am hoping it will open the door for some of the world's best to take a look and agree to get a piece of the "India Shining" pie.
More updates later on today on the results.
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