Vedajyoti Ozah of Houston, Texas, has embarked upon the - Posoowa

23
World champion Archer
Jayanta Talukdar
Jayanta Talukdar has been hailed as the
brightest prospect in Indian archery.
His journey from a promising young
archer to one of World’s top archers has
been nothing less than remarkable. This
23-year-old champion archer belongs to
Guwahati and it was here, that archery
coaches first spotted and selected him at a
talent hunting camp in the late 90’s. He
has been a trainee at the Tata Archery
Academy, Jamshedpur since 2000, and is
pursuing a BA course as well from an open
university. The coaches at this academy
were impressed with his physical strength
and focused attitude.
In 2004, Jayanta became the top performer
of the Indian team and won the silver medal
at the Junior Worlds in Britain. He made
Indians proud as this was the country‘s
first medal at a World Championship. As
Jayanta upstaged a few seasoned stars to
clinch the Olympic round at the 25th
Senior Nationals in Kochi, he became
India’s top ranking archer in 2005. His
success story continued and eventually he
made history by winning the Gold Medal
in the FITA Meteksan Archery World Cup
at Porec, Croatia, in the same year.
Jayanta ranked second (his career best
FITA ranking) behind Italy‘s Ilario di Buo
in the world rankings of individual archery.
In the SAF Games held in Colombo, in
2006, Jayanta defeated compatriot
Tarundeep Rai to bag the men‘s individual
recurve gold in archery. As a testimony to
his sparkling performance, he was
honoured with the Arjuna Award-2006
for Archery by the President of India, at a
glittering function in New Delhi on
August 29, 2007.
Jayanta receiving Arjuna Award from the
President of India Smt Pratibha Devisinghji
Patil
Jayanta has helped the Indian team bag
the team Gold in the World Cup last year
and two this year at Stage I and Stage II.
The trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul
Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia won
India the men’s recurve Team Gold in the
team event at the Archery World Cup Stage
2 at Porec, Croatia, on the 9 th of May this
year. It was the second consecutive team
gold medal after bagging the first at Santo
Domingo World Cup Stage 1 on April 5.
India had beaten Great Britain in Stage 1
final. After the Team Gold , the icing on
the cake was provided by Jayanta when he
also clinched the men’s individual recurve
gold in the Archery World Cup Stage 2 at
Porec, Croatia, the same day on the 9 th of
May this year. In fact, Porec has been a
happy hunting ground for Indians as
Jayanta began it all in 2006 winning the
individual gold, the year in which his world
ranking rose to two. He figured in the
World Cup finals in Mexico but finished
last among four contestants.
The same super trio had also bagged for
India the first ever Team Gold in World
Cup series, winning at Antalya (Turkey)
in 2008 and that was followed by two more
wins already this year as narrated above.
In fact, the trio, along with Raju Ajonda,
had won the gold in the 15th Asian
Archery Championship held at Xian,
China in 2007. Jayanta also won his third
head-to-head contest against the Italian
Galiazzo, all played at Porec, Croatia. He
first tamed Galiazzo in 2006 on way to the
gold medal, and again beat him in 2008
and now in the final recently, this year. So,
if past data can be extrapolated to foretell
patterns in the future, it is amply clear
that Jayanta is one of the few Indian sport
superstars who has such a trailblazing
career and he is probably only a few steps
away from the much coveted Olympic Gold
in 2012.
This ace archer’s family is now waiting for
him to hit the bull’s eye: an Olympic medal..
“Jayanta is confident about qualifying for
the Olympics on the basis of his world
ranking”, says his father Mr Ranjan
Talukdar, a Guwahati based businessman.
He even recently told an interviewer that
he and his wife Satyawati would visit
London for the next Olympics, if Jayanta
is blessed to keep his date with destiny.
World No. 2 Jayanta missed a berth for
the Beijing Olympics held last year because
of a dip in his performance as he was yet
to adapt to new techniques imparted by
his Korean coaches. However, to his fan’s
delight, he has managed to overcome this
lean patch witnessed recently. Mr Ranjan
Talukdar said, “Jayanta adopted a new
technique of playing at the instance of his
Korean coach, which was one of the
reasons he could not perform to his ability,
as mastering a new technique needs some
time. But now that he has completely
adjusted with the new technique, you can
expect more glory to come.”
Jayanta while speaking to the Business
Standard newspaper after his latest medal
haul said “Of course I am proud of my
achievements. But I would like to believe
that this is just the beginning. As a nation,
we have shown in the past that we can
compete with the best”. But he believes
that the sport needs a shot in the arm in
India, ideally an Olympic medal.
His next target now is the Third Stage of
the World Championships, to be held in
Turkey in four months. “I will continue
to practice hard and, hopefully, repeat my
performance” which served him well in
Croatia. He says that working under veteran
archer Limba Ram, who is the coach
of the Indian Archery Team, has been a
wonderful experience. An idol for many
of the archers, Jayanta says Ram is more
than an inspiration. “He knows the sport
very well, is always there to guide you and
his experience comes in handy.”
Jayanta is in Kolkata now to train, beginning
in June, ahead of the third stage of
the World Cup. “It’s not just about working
hard”, he says - “You also need to be
mentally strong.” As of now, his sights are
fixed on the tournament ahead, but his
long-term goal remains success at the
Olympics. For the sake of the sport in India,
let’s hope Jayanta will continue to hit
bull’s eye when it matters the most.
POSOOWA May 2009