Lake Club starts archery centre

APART FROM games like tennis, squash, rowing and swimming, the Lake Club is also providing lessons in archery to the youngsters. The club has started an archery coaching centre the only one in the city with a view to promoting the sport at the grassroots level. Around 25 children in 813 age group are taking their first lessons in the ancient sport. All of them have been picked up from different schools in the city. All children, who come to this centre, are residents of the surrounding areas of the Lake. They all are provided with free coaching and equipments.
"There is no dearth of talent… all we need is to exploit it. We regularly send our representatives to different schools in the city for talent hunting and developing interest among children. So far we have been able to attract 25 children," said Lake Club Gen eral Manager Reet Mohinder Singh. "The schools are however not cooperating. I have contacted many school principals over phone, but in vain," he said.
"We are aiming to increase the number of children to 200. Once we get this number, we will start an archery academy," he said.
At present the young archers have to content with Indian made wooden bows and arrows. The authorities are in process of importing equipment from abroad.
"We are trying to import fibre arrows and good bows from abroad. We have requested Archery Federation of India to import good equipment and supply it to this centre as they are exempted from custom duty, but they haven't helped us so far," said the GM.
The archers in the centre are being trained by Gurpal Singh, who himself is a former national medallist.