To take archery at grassroots is main task: says Chandurkar

Nagpur, Nov 12

The general secretary of Archery Association of India (AAI) Pramod Chandurkar who basically belongs to Amravati has been elected as an executive committee member of World Archery during the Asian Archery Congress held at Dhaka in Bangladesh on Friday.

Chandurkar is the only Indian who is representing the country on Asian body. As many as 28 countries participated in the election. Talking to Lokmaat Times from Dhaka Chandurkar said, “ Being an Indian representative on the Asian body my main task is to take the archery at a grassroots level and to raise our genuine issues. I will also ensure how maximum benefits India can take”, he said.

Chandurkar said as far as India's standings in Asia is concerned then the country is in second or third position after Korea and Japan. “ We are concentrating on Asian Games that will be held next year in China. The efforts will be made to win maximum medals so that India can improve its position in Asia. For that we will bring new technology in the country so that our archers can compete with their Asian and world counterparts”, he said. The readers may recall that Indian archers won two silver medals in the 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta. However, in Tokyo Olympics 2020 there were more misses than hits for the Indian archers returning from the Olympics without a medal yet again.

Chandurkar will hold the post in the Asian body for four years. Chandurkar said as far as gender ratio is concerned then there is less participation of women in the entire world. “ There was already discussion of this issue during Tokyo Olympics. The world body is making efforts to increase the participation of women. India is also not behind in it. With the help of Sports Authority of India (SAI) we are planning to conduct more and more competitions for women. I think India will be the first country that has taken this step", he said.