Twenty-five year old Harish Chand Kerai was the lone bright spot in an otherwise disappointing day for Indian archers in the World Cup Archery Tournament currently underway at Antalya in Turkey.

Kerai, included in the team in place of out of form Jayanata Talukdar, did no harm to his reputation as he managed to reach the quarter finals in the individual men’s recurve event with a scintillating display. He eventually went down to the Chinese archer Hai Feng Xue 7-9 in the tie-break after they were locked at 106 points each.

The former national champion made it to the elimination round by bagging the 37th spot with a score of 1300. Today, in the elimination rounds, he first got the better of Pieter Custers of the Netherlands 105-97, then edged past Markiyan Ivashko of Ukraine 9-8 in the tie-break after they were tied at 106 each.

In the elimination round of eight, Kerai was up against the more experienced French archer Romain Giroville. But keeping his fine form going, Kerai defeated the Frenchman 107-106 to make it to the quarter finals. An achievement which has even made his former coach Sanjeev Singh proud.

Arjuna Awardee and former India captain, Sanjeev Singh hailed Kerai’s performance in Turkey as an outstanding achievement.

“Making it to the quarter finals in a field where all the top archers of the world are participating is indeed a remarkable achievement,” said Singh. According to Singh, the Antalya event, also known as the 20th Golden Arrow Tournament, almost resembles a world meet as almost all top notch archers of the world have taken part.

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