India will host the Asian Archery Para Championships from May 31 to June 6 after Kazakhstan expressed its inability to stage the event citing organisational issues because of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. The championships will be held at the Yamuna Sports Complex in Delhi.
Confirming the development, Archery Association of India secretary general Pramod Chadurkar told PTI : “The tournament will now be held at the Yamuna Sports Complex, New Delhi. Kazakhstan expressed their inability to host the tournament because of the current crisis and we readily sent out proposals.”
Kazakhstan, which shares its borders with Russia, conveyed its decision to World Archery Asia two weeks ago. “This will be held in the same window so the respective countries will just have to alter their travel plans,” Chadurkar said.
“There is less time but we are ready to support them. There will be some organisational challenges but with our technical resources we will pull it off.”
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The new national federation under Arjun Munda is also bidding to host three more international tournaments before the end of February next year. “The AAI is planning an invitational international event in Madhya Pradesh, another by Tata later this year, while the junior Asia Cup is planned in February next year. But all these events are at the planning stage, nothing is confirmed yet,” an official said.
The last big International event in archery was the Commonwealth Games 2010, and the country also hosted the Commonwealth Championships in the same year. India had organised Asian Archery Championships thrice - the last being in New Delhi in 2005. Kolkata hosted the event in 1980 and 1988.
At the last edition of Asian Para Archery Championships in Bangkok in 2019, the Indian para archers participated under the 'World Archery' banner as the national body was de-recognised then. They won one gold, one silver and one bronze.
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