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Gagan K. Teja
Tribune News Service
Patiala, June 30
Kawalpreet Singh, a compound archer from the Punjabi University, has made it to the Indian squad that will compete in the World Archery Championship in Denmark towards the end of July.
Kawalpreet took the last berth available in the squad after having lost a tie-breaker to Abhishek on the first day of the trials on June 28. He suffered another setback when he lost on points to Rajat Chauhan on Monday. The latter was in top form; he smashed two national records as he stormed into the squad.
With just one spot left up for grabs, Kawalpreet needed to take his best shot on the last day of the trials.
And he did just that. Looking confident from the outset this morning, he not only shot his highest total, 354 points, till date but also won all the Olympic matches to edge out his closest rival and make it to the squad.
“I’ve been struggling a lot for the last few months, missed the cut many times by a whisker despite being in the core group. However, my coach kept on pushing me, and finally I’ve made it,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the men’s recurve category, the battle for the third spot in the squad went down to the wire with Rahul Banerjee finally emerging triumphant. Olympians Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Tulukdar had already taken the first two spots.
The main focus will be on the recurve archers as the World Championship will double up as a qualifying tournament for the Rio Olympics.
Squad:
Compound (men): Abhishek, Rajat and Kawalpreet
Compound (women): Jyothi Surekha, Purvasha Shinde and P Lily Chanu.
Recurve (women): Deepika Kumari, Laxmi Rani Majhi, and Rimil
Recurve (men): Mangal Singh Champia, Jayanta Tulukdar, Rahul Banerjee.
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