Champai breaks Limba Ram's record

Top-ranked Jhanu Hansda of Jharkhand became the first Indian archer to cross the 1390 mark while Mangal Singh Champai of Andhra Pradesh broke Limba Ram's 17-year-old National record, on the inaugural day of the three-day selection trials for Indian team, in Jamshedpur, on Friday.

Hansda, who scored 1395 points to top-rank in the women's compound category, was six points short of world record.

Champai, who turned out for the southern state, shattered Limba Ram's 357-point mark, set in 1989, scoring 359 in the men's 30-metre recurve category.

Champai shot a point less than the world mark of 360, set by a Korean archer.

In the cadet girls' compound category, the Jharkhand archers held sway, Namita Yadav scoring the highest - 1356 points - followed by Jyoti Bandra (1261), Asrita Kerketta (1166) and Rimili Biruli (1044).

Apart from Yadav, the cadet boys in the compound and cadet girls and boys in the recurve, shot over the 1300 mark in their first attempt, which is also a record in the country.

While B Pranitha (Jharkhand) scored 1347 in the cadets girls' recurve, Renso Purty (cadet boys compound) and A Raju (cadet boys' recurve) scored 1364 and 1331 respectively for the home state.

Jharkhand's archers also dominated the junior girls' compound category, bagging the top four spots, with Sweety Kumari leading the points' chart with 1323 points in the first round today.

In the senior women's compound section, ace archer Jhanu Hansda was followed by Manjudha Soy (1363), K H Bhagyabati Chanu (1344) and Sweety Kumari (1323).

In the men's compound round, Paltan Hansda (1346) sailed smoothly whereas his opponents C H Lenin (Andhra) and Chungda Sherpa (Services) were tied on 1337.

Lenin bagged the second spot for scoring the point in the first attempt.

The senior women's recurve category witnessed a close contest between Arjuna awardee Dola Banerjee and Reshma Banerjee while Chekrovolu Swuro (Nagaland) top-scored with 1340 points.

Reshma (Jharkhand) scored 1313 points to push Dola of Indian Railways (1311) to the third spot on the first day.