Another Academy on cards

Jamshedpur, March 14: Budding archers of the state are set to get one more state-of-the-art academy to sharpen their skills.

To be inaugurated this month, the archery academy of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) at Kiriburu in West Singhbhum would aim at nurturing budding archers from grassroots.

The academy, SAIL officials said, would be completely residential. Initially, training on Indian round (bamboo) would be imparted to 20 talented archers — 10 boys and girls each. The selection of the first batch had been done through a mega selection trial conducted last year.

Aspiring archers in the age group of 13-15 years would be inducted into the academy and Asian Championship (1989) medal winner Rajendra Guian would be the chief coach. SAIL officials said that several local talents were spotted in Kiriburu during the archery events organised by the company as part of its corporate social responsibility, and so the academy was being established.

The SAIL authorities visited the local Tata Steel Archery Academy here recently to grasp the nitty-gritty of maintaining and running an archery academy. Being one of the best academies around, the officials visited the shooting range and residential quarters at TSAA, the officials said.

SAIL general manager (mines) Kalyan Maiti told The Telegraph: “The tentative date of inaugurating the academy is March 19. All the state-of-the-art facilities would be provided to the budding archers at the academy. We have earmarked a shooting range and the training of these archers would be conducted throughout the day. In the evening, they will study. Our own teachers will be conducting their classes.”

Maiti added that though there are two coaches as of now, more coaches would be inducted on contract. There are plans of inducting fresh cadets every two years.

The SAIL officials said the archery training cradle at Kiriburu would be on a par with the prominent academies of SAIL at Rourkela (hockey) and Bokaro (football). Besides getting stipend, for every three cadets there will be a teacher from the Project Central School run by SAIL in Kiriburu for imparting education.

The officials also said that since TSAA is one of the best archery academies in the country, most of the budding talents in and around Kiriburu cannot get admission to it directly. The SAIL academy would help groom them.