Anurag Thakur meets World Youth Archery winners; congratulates them for big medal haul

New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Tuesday interacted with the World Youth Archery Championship winners and congratulated them for making the "nation proud". Team India registered a total of 15 medals - 8 gold, 2 silver, and 5 bronze, from the archery championships in Wroclaw, Poland.

Thakur heaped praise on the "existing talent pool" the country has at the grassroots level. "The initiatives taken under the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to develop schemes such as the Khelo India to develop and nurture the grassroots level talent are showing results in Championships like this. It is overwhelming to see so many of our youth across the country are bringing laurels to all sports and going forward, it gives us major hopes. I congratulate all the young archers and wish them all the luck in the competitions ahead. As they transition to the senior team, they shall be getting all the possible support to compete at the high-performance level," Thakur said.

The gold medallists included the Cadet Compound Women's Team, the Cadet Compound Men's Team, the Junior Recurve Men's Team, the Cadet Recurve Men's Team, the Cadet Compound Men's Team, the Cadet Recurve Mixed Team, the Junior Recurve Mixed Team, and Komolika Bari, who won the gold in the Junior Recurve W'men's Individual event.

Komolika, who won two gold medals, in the individual and the mixed doubles events, also won the coveted medal at the 2019 World Cadet Championships. A part of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme Core team, Komalika, also another TATA Academy product, became the national champion in Women's Individual Recurve at the 41st NTPC Junior Archery National Championship held in Dehradun in March 2021. Her tremendous rise came to the fore since the Khelo India games, where she had participated and made podium finishes at the Khelo India Youth Games 2019, 2020 as well as the University Games last year.

The silver medallists from Poland meet, meanwhile, included Priya Gurjar, who won the Cadet Compound Individual Event, and Sakshi Chaudhary from the Compound Junior Individual (Men and Women) event. The bronze medallists included Parneet Kaur in the Compound Cadet Women's category, Rishabh Yadav in the Compound Junior Individual (Men and Women) event, Manjiri Manoj Alone, and Bishal Changmai in the Recurve Cadet Individual (Men and Women) event as well as the Cadet Recur'e Women's Team.