Catch them young

Jamshedpur, March 16: The state archery body would lay more stress on nurturing youngsters from districts in the wake of the Cadet and Junior World Championships in October this year.

The state archery body has decided to scout talents from different school events initiated by the association.

Jharkhand Archery Association (JAA) officials pointed out that they would concentrate on making these budding talents technically strong so that they could become good archers in the future.

“The first phase of selection has begun and the trials are also scheduled to take place in Calcutta in the month of April. We are grooming children here so that most of the archers from Jharkhand find a place in the national squad,” said JAA secretary Sanjeeva Singh.

Apart from that, the state association is also laying emphasis on those districts where archers have been performing well in different tournaments.

JAA officials said districts like Lohardaga and Ranchi have produced good archers and they plan to groom them further.

Officials pointed out that presently they are scouting talents who have secured first to third positions in various school-level competitions as well as similar events organised recently.

“Once the archers are selected, we would start with Indian bows that would be provided by the association to the first three in any particular event. They would then be groomed under our experts and based on their performance and knack, they would be provided with modern bows either for the compound or re-curve division,” said Sanjeeva.

The mushrooming of different academies across the state too has been an added advantage for the game, officials said. The best ones are being selected for the Tata Steel Archery Academy while many are being trained at the newly opened Seraikela Archery Academy.

Another academy in the pipeline at Kiriburu would also help nurture grassroots talents, officials said.