NEW DELHI: The Archery Association of India (AAI) has come out with a national calendar for 2021, including dates for nationals for all age groups as well as details about the exposure trips planned for the archers.
The senior nationals is tentatively set to be held in Chittaranjan in April and will be conducted by the Railways. The dates are yet to be finalised as talks are still on with stakeholders. However, there is still uncertainty with regards to participation of the top eight recurve archers who are currently in the camp in ASI, Pune.
Due to strict quarantine rules, anyone leaving and re-entering needs to be tested and then observe a period of self isolation before being allowed to start training. So these need to be addressed. The World Cup Stage I in Guatemala begins from April 19 so that will also be taken into consideration.
"These details which will be decided soon. We would like the participation of everyone. We will find a suitable solution," AAI secretary Pramod Chandurkar informed this daily.
The junior nationals are in Dehradun from March 7-15 while the Sub-junior nationals is set to be held in Amravati, Maharashtra from March 20-26. "Safety will be a priority and we will ensure easy access, strict protocols are in place and hopefully, all things go off smoothly," he added.
Interestingly, compound archers will get their first dose of action in over a year when the first open assessment trial is held at the end of this month to select the top 16 in Sonepat. Many of the compound archers are yet to begin training and it remains to be seen how they perform.
Another important detail was the Commonwealth Archery test event set to be held in Delhi in December. The federation has also written to the IOA regarding shifting the Commonwealth Archery event from Chandigarh to Delhi as the national capital already has existing infrastructure in place.