Top archers of the country will be seen in action in the second stage of the TATA National Ranking Archery Tournament (NRAT) which will be held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here from March 24 to 29.
The event will start with the sub-junior category which will be held on the first two days and will be followed by junior category (March 26 and 27).
The competition in the senior section, where top archers like Deepika Kumari, Rahul Banerjee, L Bombayala Devi, Tarundeep Rai, Jayant Talukdar, Atanu Das among others will fight for top honours, will be held on March 28 and 29.
Besides the top 12 ranked archers in sub-junior, junior and senior recurve and compound (both men and women) of the first TATA NRAT that took place in Hyderabad last month, the event will also witness the participation of archers who earned a benchmark score in different events.
The tournament will also serve as a selection trial for the first World Cup in China, second World Cup in Turkey and Youth World Championships in USA.
The archers shortlisted from the second NRAT will compete in the final selection trial. The final selection trial of the senior teams will be here on March 31 and April 1, while the junior and sub-junior teams will be handpicked on April 7 and 8.
"Motivation comes in many forms. Awarding performance-related cash rewards of Rs 50 lakhs in a year in four NRATs followed by a final in all three categories is certainly playing its part in bringing out the best from our archers at the national and international level," Archery Association of India president V K Malhotra told reporters.
Malhotra also congratulated the medal-winning junior archers who arrived in the country yesterday after finishing on top at the second stage Asia Cup in Bangkok by bagging six medals -- three gold, two silver and one bronze.
"I am extremely proud that India is fast emerging as a new power in world archery in all age groups," he said.
