Jayanta Talukdar during a practice session. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, May 15: For businessman Ranjan Talukdar, an SMS he received on Saturday night from faraway Croatia is unlikely to ever be deleted from his handset ? or from his own cache of memories.

The SMS brought the delightful news that his son Jayanta had won the gold medal in the world archery championship. Not only that, he had been ranked number 1 in the archery World Cup ? an epochal feat.

?I was expecting some sort of good news. But what he has achieved is beyond our wildest dreams,? said Talukdar, basking in the glory of a worthy son.

In fact, Jayanta?s achievement went much beyond the expectations of the entire state. Many did not even know that a player from Assam was participating in the competition.

Jayanta left his home state a few years ago to train at the Jamshedpur-based Tata Archery Academy, that honed his raw skills and turned him into a world class player.

Jayanta won the gold in the men?s Olympic round recurve gold and a silver in the men?s Fita round 70-metre distance event in the FITA Meteksan Archery World Cup 2006 and European Grand Prix Tournament at Porec in Croatia on Saturday.

He beat two Olympians ? Athens gold medallist Marco Galiazzo of Italy 109-108 in the semi-finals and Atlanta silver medallist Magnus Petersson of Sweden 108-105 in the final ? for the gold and to top the rankings with 25 points in his kitty. The only other Indian in the world rankings is Ravindhar Nenavath, with four points, in the 13th place.

In the 70-metre distance event, Talukdar went down marginally to Italian rival Marco Galiazzo for the silver. Talukdar tallied 668 points.

He will participate in four more editions of the World Cup later this year.

Talukdar will get a cash award of Rs 1 lakh from the Archery Association of India for topping the World Cup rankings.

Like his adopted state Jharkhand, which has nominated him for the Arjuna award for his feat, sports administrators in Assam, too, are hailing his achievements.

Director of Sports Dhruba Hazarika and top SAI sub-centre official Subhas Basumatary have described him as a ?trendsetter? and expressed the hope that this is only the beginning of a great journey in a state which has a history of talent going awry. ?We are proud of him and need to back him,? Hazarika said. The Assam Olympic Association, too, hailed his feat.

Talukdar?s coach and mentor Sanjeeva Kumar Singh of Tata Archery Academy was, naturally, ?euphoric? about the 18-year-old?s grand success. ?As soon as the news came to us on Saturday evening, euphoria set in at the academy. He is one of the best talents in the country. We expect him to win gold medals for the country in the Olympics and Asian Games,? Singh said from Jamshedpur.

Into the third year of his international career, Jayanta has won a silver in the junior World Championship in 2004 at England, a silver in the World Archery Championship in 2005 at Spain, a bronze in the Asian Championship in New Delhi in November 2005 and a gold at the Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok in February 2006.

He will soon leave for Antalia (Turkey) and El Salvador for two more editions of the World Cup. If he strikes gold in all the five annual World Cup tournaments organised by the FITA, he will be entitled to prize money worth US $20,000. The fourth and fifth editions will be held at Shanghai and Mexico.

Talukdar was inducted into the TAA after Singh spotted him at a talent hunt programme here in 2000. The previous year, Jayanta?s brother Nikhilesh Talukdar was picked by the academy but was later dropped on the basis of performance. Runu Swargiary, inducted in 2002, is another archer from Assam at the academy.