All you need to know about the archery calendar 2021: Tentative dates for nationals, Asian Championship, World Cup and other top international events
After a frustrating 2020, Indian archers are set for a busy 2021
The Archery Association of India (AAI) has announced a provisional schedule for the events that are going to take place in 2021. They have included nationals for all age groups and have also published details about exposure trips that are in the pipeline for the archers.
Senior Nationals
The senior nationals are tentatively to be held in Chittaranjan, West Bengal in April which will be organised by the Railways. Exact dates will be revealed once the final round of discussions is over with all stakeholders.
There is a cloud of uncertainty over the participation of the top eight recurve archers, who are currently camping in Pune, as there are strict quarantine rules.
"These details will be decided soon. We would like the participation of everyone. We will find a suitable solution," AAI secretary Pramod Chandurkar to The New Indian Express.
If an archer leaves the facilities, the athlete must not only test negative but also self-isolate before getting back to training.
Junior Nationals
The junior nationals will be from March 7-15 in Dehradun.
Sub-Junior Nationals
The sub-junior nationals will be held from March 20-26 in Amravati, Maharashtra.
2021 World Cup
The senior World Cup Stage 1 will be held from April 19-25 in Guatemala. Stage 2 will be organised from May 17-23 in Shanghai, China. Stage 3 will be held from June 22-27 in Paris before the finals which are scheduled in September.
2021 Asia Cup (Junior)
The Junior Asia Cup 2021 Stage 1 will be held from May 2-9, 2021 in Bangkok, Thailand. Whereas, stage 2 will be held from June 7-11 in Gwangju, Korea. Stage 3 will be held in Shenzen, China from October 25-30.
Tokyo Qualifiers
The final qualification camp for Tokyo 2020 will be in Paris, from June 18-20.
Tokyo Olympic Games
The archers will try their luck for an Olympic medal starting from July 23. Whereas, the Paralympic archers will shoot from August 27.
Archery Championship
The World Archery Championship will be held in Yankton, USA, from September 19-26. Australia will host the Youth Championship from October 4-10.
Para National
The 4th Para National Archery Championship will be held in Rohtak, Haryana from October 11-15.
Asian Archery Championship
The marquee event of the continent will be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh from November 19-25.
Commonwealth Test Event
The Commonwealth Archery test event will be held in Delhi in December. Currently, the venue is Chandigarh but AAI has already written to IOA (Indian Olympic Association), requesting them to shift the venue from Punjab to the national capital due to readiness and availability of infrastructure.
However, compound archers will be in action later this month in Sonepat as they will be participating in the first open assessment trial to select the top 16. The Coronavirus pandemic has kept them away from the court for many months and some of them are yet to begin training.