Olympian Hopes

Dola Banerjee's world title took archery to the next level and raised Olympichopes in the country of a billion that shudders every four years in the fear ofreturning from the quadrennial event empty-handed.

With less than a year to go for the Beijing Games, Dola's gold winning feat atthe Dubai World Cup finals has not only made her a strong contender for podiumfinish in the mega event but also raised India's hopes for a better haul ofmedals in the Dragonland.

Dola's career, which was going steady till recently, had a sharp take-off in thelater half of this year as the girl with the golden arm finished on top of thepodium thrice in four months.

The Arjuna awardee's tryst with the yellow metal started in early August thisyear as she clinched the women's recurve individual gold in the fourth leg ofthe World Cup in Dover.

Days later, at Lord's, the Mecca of cricket, she bagged the team gold along withChekrovolu Swuro and L Bombayla Devi at the triangular npower InternationalArchery Challenge, involving Great Britain and China.

Dola continued with her golden form in the Dubai World Cup finals in November asshe sprang a surprise by pipping Olympic champion Korean archer Choi Eun Youngin a cliffhanger to become the world champion in her pet event.

In July, Dola and her teammates had brought cheers for India by booking threeberths for the country in the 2008 Olympics after making it to the quarterfinalsof the Leipzig World Outdoor Championships, which otherwise had a lot ofdisappointment in store for the Indian camp because of the below par performanceof the men's team.

The year, however, was not a memorable one for the men archers, who slumped onmany occasions before salvaging some pride by winning the team recurve gold byovercoming the Malaysian challenge at the Asian Archery Championships in Xian,China, in September.

In that tournament, they managed to earn only two Olympics qualification spotsfor the country for the 2008 edition, ruling out the possibility of India'sparticipation in the team event of the Games.

Meanwhile, away from the limelight, three junior archers -- Adonda Raju, RajibBasumatary and Ravinder Hembram -- made the country proud by setting a worldrecord at the Cadet World Archery Championship in Mexico in October.

The Indian recurve team, which had bagged the bronze medal, scored a total of441 points in the team finals (aggregate of semi-finals and finals) against goldmedal winner Turkey's 438 points.

With the potential to take on the best in the world, the Indian archers wouldtake heart from Dola's achievements to give their best and bring home laurelsfrom the quadrennial event next year.