National Junior Archery Championship kicked off in Shillong
Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma today inaugurated the 34th National Junior Archery Championship here in which over 500 participants from 30 states will participate.
The five-day event will see teams and individuals contesting in various divisions -- recurve, compound and Indian round.
Silver and bronze medalist in individual recurve, Atanu Das and Seema Verma respectively (both of SPSB) besides the silver (men) and bronze medalist (women) in recurve at the Junior World Championship, Poland, are also vying for a place in this event.
There are 49 medals in fray in this tournament. Speaking at the inaugural function of the event, Sangma said, "Sports and games enable us to come together and understand the rich diversity of our country. It is high time we look at investing in sports."
"It is with this intention that we (Meghalaya) are ensuring that we invest adequately and aggressively in sports," he said.
In resonance with the state government's declaration that 2012 is the 'year of the youth', the chief minister said his government is embarking on an education system that will enable boys and girls taking up sports as a career and bring out the best in them.
"We will champion for the cause of sports and we will see that maximum allocation of funds will be made available in this field...we will try to prevail upon policy makers in Delhi," he assured.
Meghalaya has hosted two other national event in archery in the past in 1975 and in 1999.
