New Delhi. Archery Premier League is going to be organized for the first time. 48 top archer will participate in this league. From 2 to 12 October, the first archery to be held in the Yamuna Sports Complex here will compete in the Premier League (APL). This is the first franchise based tournament. Other top foreign archers included in the six team’s league include world number six player Mexico’s Matias Grande (Recurve) and women number one player Mike Shloseer (Compound) of Netherlands.
Indian archers were selected on the basis of the recent selection trial of the Indian Archery Association (AAI) along with the world rankings. In the recurve, the world’s third player Deepika and the world number 14 Dheeraj Bommdevra along with experienced Tarundeep Rai and Atanu Das are included in the list of India’s top players. Other women recurve archers include Ankita Bhakat and Bhajan Kaur, while the men’s team consists of Neeraj Chauhan, Rahul, Rohit Kumar, Mrinal Chauhan, Sachin Gupta and Krish Kumar.
In the compound category, world record holder Jyoti Surekha Vennam (number three) and world number nine Rishabh Yadav are leading Indian players. He is accompanied by veteran Abhishek Verma (No. 10), Prathamesh Bhalchandra Phug (No. 11), Priyansh (No. 16) and Parneet Kaur (No. 17). Other players will represent Aman Saini, Ojas Devtale, Sahil Rajesh Jadhav and Chittibomma Jignas men while Prithika Pradeep, Avneet Kaur and Madhura Dhamangaonkar are part of the women’s class.
The APL launched by AAI will have six teams Prithviraj Warrior (Delhi), Rajputana Royals (Rajasthan), Chola Chiefs (Tamil Nadu), Kakatiya Nights (Telangana), Chera Archers (Jharkhand) and Myty Maratha (Maharashtra). Each team will have eight archers including male and female players, including six Indians and two foreign players. The total prize money of the league is two crore rupees.
Teams were selected on Thursday after the draft of eight -round players. Each team has eight members including four men and four women. The teams may include a maximum of two foreign archers, out of which four players playing at least one will have to make a share. In the unique format of the league, both recurve and compound archers will be seen competing with each other. Both recurve and compound range will be of Olympic level which will be 70 meters and 50 meters respectively. This competition will be played in milky lights. In the league, you will be seen as compared to the mixed team in recurve and compound. Round Robin matches will have three matches per day. Each match will be of 20 minutes. The time to run Tir has been reduced from internationally 20 seconds to 15 seconds.
AAI is expected to change the face of this game through this league. AAI General Secretary Virendra Sachdeva said during the draft ceremony of the players, ‘Archery is an ancient game and we have a rich history. We have won medals in every competition- whether it is a World Cup, World Championship, Asian Championship, Commonwealth Championship but the Olympic medal is still left and I am confident that this league will help us achieve it in the future.
The teams are as follows:
Prithviraj Warrior: Matias Grande, Andrea Besera, Abhishek Verma, Gatha Anandru, Priyansh, Sarwari Shende, Krish Kumar, Pranjal Salve.
Chero Archors: Mathias Fulrton, Kaitharina Bauur, Rahul, Prithvi Pradeep, Atanu Das, Madala Humsini, Sahil Rajesh, Kumkum Mohod.
Kakatiya Nights: Nico Viner, Elia Canals, Neeraj Chauhan, Jyoti Surekha Vennam, Rohit Kumar, Avneet Kaur, Jignas, Tisha Poonia.
Chola Chiefs: Brady Alison, Miri-Merita Pass, Rishabh Yadav, Deepika Kumari, Tarundeep Rai, Taniparthi Chikitha, Pulkit Kajla, Anshika Kumari.
Mite Maratha: Mike Shloseer, Alejandra Valensia, Dheeraj Bommdevra, Parneet Kaur, Aman Saini, Bhajan Kaur, Mrinal Chauhan, Madhura D.
Rajputana Royals: Mete Gazzo, Ella Gibson, Prathamesh Phug, Ankita Bhakat, Ojas Praveen, Basanti Mahato, Sachin Gupta, Swati Dudhwal.
