New Delhi: Indian archer Jayanta Talukdar has become the top-ranked archer in the World Cup after clinching the individual recurve gold in the just concluded FITA Meteksan Archery World Cup at Porec, Croatia.
Talukdar will get a cash award of Rs 1 lakh from the Archery Association of India for achieving the feat.
Hailing Talukdar's huge effort in the World Cup, in which he defeated two Olympic medallists, coach Sanjeev Kumar Singh said the Tata Archery Academy product was now a strong contender for the Asian and Olympic medals.
"I now see him as a strong contender for the Asian and Olympic medals. He is performing consistently and this year he has defeated three Olympic medallists -- silver medallist in Athens Olympics Yamamoto Hiroshi of Japan at the Bangkok Asian Grand Prix, Athens Olympics gold medallist Marco Gallizao of Italy (in the semifinals) and silver medallist at the Atlanta Olympics Magnus Petersson of Sweden (in the finals) in World Cup in Croatia," Sanjeev said.
But, he said, Talukdar had to keep up his performance in the next four World Cups scheduled to be held this year.
"He must keep up the good work as the next competitions will be tougher with the Koreans set to throw a strong challenge."
The next World Cups will be played at Antalia (Turkey) from June 9 to 14, El Salvador from June 21 to 28, Shanghai from Septemeber 1 to 5 and Mexico from October 15.
Talukdar, who was picked up during a talent hunt by the Tata Academy in 2000, has so far won three individual gold medals and three team silver medals in his two-year international career.
Comments
0 comment