Three-year-old sets shooting arrow record in Human Ultimate World Records Inc

CHENNAI : Wearing blue sneakers, a black tracksuit, and her curly hair tied up with a white scrunchie, Sanjana holds the wooden Indian bow in her hands. The bow is twice the size of the three-year-old, who nocks the arrow, which is longer than her arm, onto the string carefully. Her small black eyes scan the audience, who cheer excitedly, before looking at the buttress placed seven metres from her. She draws and releases in a flash, and the only sign that something had happened is the trembling of the arrow half-buried in the bulls-eye.

Sanjana, who can barely form coherent sentences, set the Human Ultimate World Records Inc., for the most number of arrows shot in one sitting by shooting 1,111 arrows in just over four hours. “When she joined me, I knew she would do well;I saw a fire in her eyes. When we gave her a bow on her first day, she refused to give it back. She learned, whatever an adult would take three months to learn, in under ten days. Her technique, even at such a young age, is excellent,” said Shihan Hussaini, her coach. She joined the Hu Archery Mission late this April, and her skill led Hussaini to believe she could set the new world record.

Glaring at the buttress, she grabs an arrow from the quiver hanging at her waist and twirls it in her little fingers. Her parents, seated beside her, quickly slip another arrow into the quiver. “On her first birthday, she got a gift of a bow and arrow from someone. She wouldn’t let it go. So I decided to enrol her in an archery school. Most schools were non-registered, but Hu’s was a registered academy. ]Many places turned me away when I told them she was only two and a half years old. When Hussaini asked me how old she was, I was afraid to say her age. But he accepted her immediately,” said Premnath U, Sanjana’s father. Sanjana’s mother, Swetha, sat with her daughter, fanning her and wiping her face while she continuously nocked and shot arrow after arrow.

Hussaini, a holder of 13 world records himself, emceed the event, motivating his student by continuously speaking to Sanjana. By the 800th arrow, Hussaini kept asking her every fifty arrows if she wanted to stop. Every time, she said clearly into the mike, “No. I can do it”, before turning back to the buttress and firing another arrow.

Dignitaries present
Sports Minister Balakrishna Reddy, Mylapore MLA R Natraj, General Secretary of the Tamil Nadu State Olympic Association JM Fernando, and president of the Archery Association of Tamil Nadu, Kumar Rajendran.