Reena all set for Beijing trip

Sun, May 11 12:05 AM

Reena Kumari is all set to be the third member of the Indian women's archery team for the Beijing Olympics after Dola Banerjee and Laishram Bombayla Devi. At the selection trials at SAI's Eastern Centre on Saturday, Reena outshot Chekrovolu Swuro, who was part of the three-member team that secured the Olympic berth at the World Championships in Leipzig, Germany, last year.

But since then, Swuro's form dropped and the experienced Nagaland archer finished outside the top eight at the National Ranking meet in Meerut earlier this month after mediocre performances in the World Cups at the Dominican Republic and Porec, Croatia. Considering that Swuro, along with Dola and Bombayla, had won India the Olympic berth, the Archery Association of India president, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, who is also head of the selection committee, had asked the association to give Swuro a chance to rediscover her form.

But at the meet, in which Dola and Bombayla did not take part, Swuro finish fourth with 2538 points, way behind Reena (2575) and Punya Prabha (2570). "I will send the results to the president and he will take the final call," said Pareshnath Mukherjee, secretary of the AAI.

Everyone was almost sure that Reena would go to Beijing. "Otherwise this selection trial would have become a farce," an official said.

Reena, who had last represented India at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, was obviously happy. "After a poor show in Doha I changed my bow and style of shooting under coaches Dharmender Singh and Lim (Chae Woong) of South Korea.

" The trials here also selected teams for the two World Cups at Antalya, Turkey and Boe in France. Teams for Antalya (May 27-31): Women: Dola Banerjee, L.

Bombayla Devi, Reena Kumari and Punya Prabha. Men: Mangal Singh Champia, Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Priyank.

Teams for Boe (June 25-29): Women: Punya Prabha, Chekrovolu Swuro, V. Pranitha and Rimil Biruli.

Men: Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee, Priyank and W. Ranjan Singh (Jr).

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