Young archers are bucking up as was evident in the recent junior
national event here which in the past has thrown up national stars,
especially from tribal areas of Jharkhand and the northeastern states.

Mangal Singh Champia, Tarundeep Rai, Bombayla Devi, Pratima Boro,
Chekrovlu Swuro, Sumanlata Murmu, Jhanu Hansda, who hail from these
areas, have stood up against the mighty Koreans and Chinese in
international tournaments. India finished second at the 2005 World
Championship and are the reigning men's Asian Champions.

India have matched the best in business in recent years in World Cups,
but success at the bigger stage like the Olympics is yet to come.
Limba Ram at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Satyadev Yadav in Athens
Games were tipped to win medals but returned empty-handed. World
champion Dola Banerjee and Champia added their names to that list in
Beijing this year.

Part of the reason for the stage fright in bigger events is the
archers' background. Most of them are tribals, hailing from far-flung
areas. They hone their skills on traditional bamboo bows and arrows
and switch to modern gear only when they get to the international
level. Importantly, almost all of them take to sport to secure a job
and once they get used to the small pleasures of life, their focus
shifts from the sport.

Archery Association of India (AAI) general secretary Paresh Nath
Mukherjee calls it a "socio-economic problem."

"Fifty percent of our talented archers are from tribal areas and the
sudden lifestyle changes do affect them. The expectations rise as they
perform well at the international level and that proves to be
counter-productive, making them complacent," Mukherjee told IANS.

To overcome the stage fright and give them a more competitive edge,
AAI introduced prize money ranking tournaments after Athens. It proved
productive and since then India have bagged a handful of medals at the
international level.

One of India's all-time best archers Dola says that the prize money
tournaments have motivated the archers.

"We are doing well at international meets in the last three-four
years. One of the reasons we did well in that period was because these
tournaments motivated us to perform because the tournaments offered
good money and were competitive," she says.

The Jamshedpur archer, however, points out that long term planning is
needed to get consistent results in major international events like
the Olympics. "You cannot win an Olympic medal by winning one or two
world events. There should be long-term planning. See how Korea and
China, the top nations in the sport, plan for four years," says Dola.

Dola laments that like other Olympic sports in India, funds and
sponsors have been a problem for the archers too. "Money is very
important. Most of the archers are from humble tribal families and it
is not possible for them to fund the costly equipment," Dola told
IANS.

For starters, a bow can cost Rs.8,000 and a top quality bow can cost
up to Rs.200,000. The arrows also need to be changed regularly.

Dola says that in the last two years the number of prize money
tournaments has gone down. "In 2003-04, there were six prize money
tournaments. But slowly the money got reduced and last year there was
only one tournament. Earlier, the winner used to get Rs.25,000 and now
it is Rs.7,000-10,000. Now it has been reduced to just selection
trials."

The AAI, though, has a different take on the dwindling number of
domestic tournaments.

"The number of international tournaments has gone up. There is no
point in holding more tournaments at home when top archers are away
competing elsewhere in the world. We will have rankings tournaments
this year looking at the international calendar," says Mukherjee.

The international archery calendar is packed with events for 10 months
and there are any number of events in the region, including the five
Asian Grand Prix competitions, the third of which is in India in May.

thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/archers-from-tribal-areas-making-a-splash-feature_100145230.html

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