Hyderabad: B V Papa Rao's panel wins Archery polls

Hyderabad: The panel of Mr B.V. Papa Rao, former adviser to TS Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, won the Archery Association of India elections. The panel comprising secretary Maha Singh and treasurer D.K. Vidyarthi won key posts.

The election ends 45 years of dominance of the association by veteran BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra’s group.

The new Archery Association president, Mr B.V. Papa Rao, an Assam cadre former IAS officer, said that archery has suffered a lot for several years, and he would focus on the management of the game. Mr Papa Rao set a seven-point agenda and promised to work hard to help Indian archers win Olympic medals.

The agenda includes planning in advance and conducting all national competitions and tournaments in time so that the state archery competitions can be held on time and teams can be sent with better travel arrangements.

“I promise to issue an annual calendar of events well in advance and ensure that it is strictly followed. Indian teams will be selected well in advance with proper selection guidelines known to every archer before they take trials. The team will be well prepared with the help of Sports Authority of India (SAI) and shall be given required training, equipment support and competition exposure,” Mr Papa Rao said.

The other points in the agenda include developing a plan in order to identify talent and nurture in close coordination with SAI, state governments, NGOs and other agencies so that there is a vast pool of talent available to encourage the best archers of the world from India.

Another point was to encourage technical officials, coaches and judges to enhance their skills by conducting workshops, seminars, etc. in close cooperation with Asian Archery Association, World Archery Federation and other international bodies.

The Association will also work in tandem with services and other sports promotion boards to improve the employment intake of archers in their organisations. The last point in the agenda was to develop the capacities of the officials of state archery associations in the areas of management, accounts and computer skills so that the administration of the sport of archery improves at the grassroot level.