Winning spree

Jamshedpur, April 20: A grand welcome awaits Tata Archery Academy (TAA) cadet Rahul Banerjee.

Though he missed out on the gold, he managed a silver for the country at the World Cup Archery Championship that concluded at Porec, Croatia, recently.

Rahul managed 109 points against 116 scored by Girouille in the final of the recurve individual men’s category.

Girouille, who has been in great form of late, finished at the fifth position at the World Cup stage I in Santo Domingo two weeks ago. Girouille started strong with a perfect first end of 10-10-10 (30) and took a four-point lead, while Banerjee scored 10-9-7 (26).

Banerjee recovered a point replying with a perfect series of three arrows (10-10-10). He was totalling 56 points at that time, while with 10-10-9, his opponent counted 59. Girouille, who seemed strongest on the field, achieved only 10s and 9s so far and took a five-point lead again with 9-9-10 against (9-8-9 of Banerjee).

The score was 87-82. Girouille increased his advantage and with 10-9-10 score line clinched his first World Cup victory over Banerjee (8-10-9). In the semi-final, Banerjee defeated Park Kyung-Mo of Korea.

Tata Steel sports department officials have lined up a huge welcome for the ace cadet. The Indian men’s recurve team, comprising Rahul Banerjee, Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia, also won the bronze medal against France by 220-213 on the last day of the second World Cup.

Tata Steel sports and TFA chief Sanjeeva Singh said the performance of the top four archers in all the four World Cups are being monitored by Archery Association of India and they will have a impact in the selection of the probables for the Beijing Olympics.