Eight Olympians to take part in inaugural Indoor Archery meet

IANS  |  Kolkata 

More than 450 archers including eight Olympians will compete in four categories in the first edition of the two-day Indian Open Indoor Tournament starting Saturday at the here.

"The event is unique because an in an indoor environment will be held for the first time in This format is very popular in the western countries," said veteran who along with brother Rahul has organised the event.

"The target is placed at a distance of 18 metres, whereas in outdoor targets are placed at a distance of 70 metres. Time taken to play in the indoor format is also much less than outdoor," she added.

The eight Olympians who will be taking part are Deepika Kumari, Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia, Tarundeep Rai, El Bombayla Devi, and though she is unlikely to participate.

"The format is the future of archery and it is emerging as a much more spectator friendly form. It is also very encouraging that eight Olympians are participating in the inaugural edition of the meet," added Rahul, the first Indian to win gold at in the individual recurve event in 2010 in

On the first day, there will be a qualification round where each archer will shoot 60 arrows. They will then move onto play the knock out round on Sunday. There will be a prize money for the top three archers in four categories. The four categories are Recurve Men and Women, Compund Men and Women.

Rahul said that world archery authorities have taken note of this meet and he is hopeful that a Indoor Archery will be held in in the next 1-2 years.

On the sidelines of the competition, there will also be a seminar organised by Korean archery equipment makers for the rookie archers.

This meet will also help Indian archers prepare for the Indoor Archery

--IANS

dm/gau/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Fri, October 26 2018. 17:24 IST