Cuttack: Top Indian archers will be seen in action in the Senior Nationals followed by selection trials for the World Championships, beginning here, Sunday.
The new regime of the Archery Association of India (AAI), under president BVP Rao, has made a slew of changes to ensure a fair and transparent selection of four members each for India A and B teams.
Overall, 1100 archers from 32 states and six affiliated units will compete in the three disciplines of recurve, compound and Indian rounds in both men’s and women’s sections.
For the first time, there would be a system of bonus and penalty points.
The Olympic round will be a round-robin affair where all the 12 archers, who qualify from the first event, will compete in one-play-all format that will eliminate any chance of favouritism.
The first event of the three-day trials will see 24 archers (16 from first stage trial in Rohtak in January plus eight from the nationals) fighting it out.
The selection trials for recurve will be from March 13 to 15, followed by compound trials and the entire process will be convened by former Olympian Lalram Sanga.
This has been done in consultation with the World Archery and federations from USA, France among other nations as.
The top four archers in the trials at KIIT University in Bhubaneswar will be India’s entry for the first and the third stages of the World Cup and the World Championships at the Dutch city of Hertogenbosch in June that will offer quota places for 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
PTI