Bokaro: In a bid to put the state of Jharkhand on the sports map of India and to encourage local talent, Vedanta ESL Steel Ltd, a key national steel player, has set up an Archery Academy in Siyaljori village near Bokaro, close to its steel manufacturing plant in Jharkhand.
Jharkhand has traditionally been involved in the field of archery. Some promising state and national level archers have come from the state which has always led in the sports nationally. The ESL Steel Archery Academy is expected to give the sports a big boost in the state and help develop fresh talent in the sport.
India has an upper hand in the sport of archery and has always produced world-class archers most of whom have come from the state of Jharkhand. This includes Deepika Kumari, Komalika Bari and Purnima Mahato, who have won accolades for the country on the global stage.
ESL Steel’s Archery Academy seeks to develop new talent in the sport who can not only represent the state in the sport but also represent the country at international tournaments.
ESL’s Archery Academy is a state-of-the-art facility, which is fully equipped with services like accommodation, dining and gymnasium. The academy provides its students with uniforms and a medical facility. Each student is trained under experts from the field of archery. With this, the kids and youth in Bokaro have access to the finest academy in their vicinity to polish their archery skills and shine bright in the future.
To encourage archers in the state and to expose them to competition, ESL Steel has also, from time to time, organised archery tournaments in their academy. Last month, the company organised a district-level archery tournament in association with the Bokaro District Archery Association, at its Archery Grounds. A total of 100 archers participated in the tournament –80 from Bokaro’s 11 blocks and 20 from Vedanta-ESL Archery Academy. The district tournament winners will get a chance to represent the state in this sport.
At present, about 35 students are trained in the ESL Archery Academy. The academy will provide archery training in the under 9, 14, and 17 year categories.
Archery is one of the priority games for the government, particularly for the village sector. The Prime Minister has set a target for getting a gold medal in the 2024 Olympic Games. For this each state has been assigned a game under the ‘One State One Game’ strategy. For Jharkhand, Archery has been chosen. Under this, ESL’s opening of an Archery Academy and organising this tournament is a great initiative to further the PM’s vision. It is also giving a platform to the local archers and imbibing a competitive spirit within them. These young archers trained at the academy are expected to play for the state and possibly represent the country in the future.
The ESL Archery Academy is catching talent at a very young age at the academy to train them to become national leaders in the sport. For example, Yavna Yadav, who is just 5 years old, is a child prodigy and is being trained at the ESL’s Archery Academy. She belongs to a remote village Moonidih in Jharkhand and has participated and won many state-level championships.
According to ESL Steel, the objective was to establish the best sports facilities for nurturing the next generation of sports achievers for the state and the country. With that in view, the company roped in leading experts from the sports fraternity to train archers in their academy. The aim was to build a well-equipped academy with trained professionals which will have residential and dining facilities for students. The academy will also provide nutrition and medical facilities for the archers.
Professional archery equipment is extremely expensive and often needs to be imported. They are precision instruments that have to be accurate for the best results. The mostly poor archers in the state do not have access to such equipment. The Academy has sought to provide complete archery kits to all students who will be trained at the academy.
The Archery Academy is part of ESL’s CSR programme. ESL’s CSR program for sports is a facilitator for budding sports enthusiasts and youth for developing their skills and transforming their lives and spreading their horizon of opportunities. It is a small step towards overcoming the challenges and creating an equitable and efficient sporting avenue to develop traditional skills.
