Pranitha, Dola make it to Beijing Olympics

Kolkata:

Junior archer V. Pranitha and veteran Dola Banerjee made the cut for the Beijing Olympic Games archery on the concluding day of the trials for the mega event on Sunday.

The duo would join L. Bombayla Devi in the Indian women's recurve archery team at Beijing.

At the end of the four-day trials at the SAI, Eastern Centre, the 17-year-old Pranitha of Steel Plant stood first with a cumulative total of 5167 out of a possible 5760 points. Railway employee Dola, who got her second successive Olympics berth, was second with 5141 points.

Uttar Pradesh girl Punya Prabha, Chekrovolu Swuro of Nagaland and Railway's Reena Kumari were third, fourth and fifth with 5128, 5124 and 5119 points respectively. Another junior Pratima Boro of Steel Plant, came sixth with 5043 points.

Each archer was asked to shoot 144 arrows daily for four days over a distance of 70m for a total of 576 arrows.

At the Olympics an archer will shoot only 72 arrows over the 70m distance in the FITA round qualification. Only 64 archers make it to the Olympics round knockout individual championship and top 16 nations for the team championship.

Indian archery squad for Olympics:

Men: Mangal Singh Champia (Railways). Women: Laishram Bombayla Devi (Rly), V. Pranitha (Steel Plant) and Dola Banerjee (Rly).