The sport, which has its roots in our ancient history and at present has been reduced to a traditional game of limited tribes, was registered with the National Sports Council only in 1983. [break]It was only five years ago that the efforts of two Singaporean ´Lahures´, Kishor Gurung and Deepak Gurung, gave a new life to the traditional game as a modern sport in Nepal.
Archery, played mostly in Bhutan, Mongolia, India´s Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur states by the indigenous tribes, and in the US by the Red Indians, has already taken a modern form in international sports.
The ambitious dream of Nepal in the Asiad scheduled for November 12 to 27 in Guangzhou, China, is not unfounded because the team´s archer Prem Prasad Pun had defeated archers of Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mongolia and Bhutan during the Second Asian Grand Prix held in Thailand earlier this year.
"We are expecting at least one bronze in the team event, and we also have a potential candidate in the individual event," archery coach Kishor Gurung quoted British coach Richard Priestman as saying.
Nepali archers´ score in the practice session is quite encouraging, according to coach Gurung. "Our archers have started to score around 320 to 330 points. The average score of international players is also around 332 points," he said.
Nepali team´s morale has reached new heights after securing bronze in the 11th South Asian Games, but the coach is cautious that the Asiad poses great challenge. "It´s very difficult to secure top spot in the Asiad because all the world champions are based in Asia. But our performance in recent days gives us the belief that we might make it to the last eight in order to qualify for the 2012 Olympics," said Gurung.
South Korea, China and India are the toughest opponents of Nepal. Japan and Taiwan trail behind these nations in the rankings, according to Laxman Shrestha, president of Nepal Archery Association. Currently, Nepal is on a par with countries like Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mongolia and Bhutan, says Shrestha.
At a time when there has been widespread discontentment in the sports sector regarding trainings hit hard due to unavailability of budget from the National Sports Council, Shrestha says that the association initiated a special training from August 7 in Pokhara on its own before the closed camp training provided by NSC.
The Nepali team, which includes Pun along with Asim Sherchan, Jit Bahadur Moktan and Ramesh Bhattachan, has been training under Priestman and Gurung ever since.
Pun, who is an experienced archer, is expecting good results as he has been receiving good training. "I don´t have any complaints regarding the training this time. The training we are getting from the foreign coach will undoubtedly bring good results. Although it is difficult as we´ll have to face world champions, we still have great expectations," he said.
Related story
Against the mandate
