NEWS

Star of the day

BEIJING: They both shoot for the bulls-eye but somehow one has managed to wrest away the public eye, while the more native of the two still struggles to assert its own. Shooters have become the darlings of India while archery has failed to find too many supporters.

All that may change forever if the form that Mangal Singh Champia displayed on Saturday carries over into the medal-winning round. In the men's individual ranking effort, Champia came in second out of a field of 64. That effectively seeds him number two and as such ensures that he will not face-up to the bad boys till the later stages of the individual match play which now follows.

Champia had a score of 678 against leader Mexican Juan Rene Serrano's 679.

The result has not come bolting from the blue. Champia has made been placed second, first and second in the seeding round of the last three World Cups he has played. Each time his luck ran out when a medal was in pinning distance. "I am feeling good. I just hope that God is on my side and luck stays with me," said Champia afterwards. One can only hope the law of averages kicks in and Champia delivers on the promise.

The 24-year-old from Jharkhand, who has chosen to represent Andhra Pradesh within the nation, has been consistent over the last 15 months. He secured India its quota berth by winning the Asian Championships last September. That in itself was huge as out of the famous five of archery, four nations are in Asia.