Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 13
IT’S ANOTHER preparation time and senior coach of archery, Hünezo Thisa, is putting his archers through their tempo. But even with around 35-40 enthusiastic girl and boy archers gathered at Indira Gandhi Stadium Kohima, the pace is still stagnant; some of the archers are with no bows and arrows. “We have to share the only 8 bows and some arrows which the state team has at present,” says Alice Murry, who after receiving training from Tata Archery Academy Jamshedpur, has been representing the state for the past five years. “It is very difficult for us to even practice regularly due to the lack of training equipments and facilities, and also sometimes it’s even sorry that we go without having breakfast in the mornings during the training” she further added.
For the past years it seems like the Nagaland Archery team has had a no-growth policy in terms of its equipments and proper training space. It is now so bad that siblings of children already at the club had to be turned away. “As for me what I feel is the most important is how much my students practice. Our state team hardly practices for around 15 days before every tournament, for which we cannot compete with other state participants who are being trained for the whole year at their respective State Academies,” said the Senior Coach of Nagaland Archers Association.
He also expressed his belief that Naga archers can compete with other states and nations too guaranteed the state provides them with a Training Academy where archers can come and spend the maximum time practicing. “I can say that we the Nagas have the potential and ability to go the distance provided that we are given proper attention” he said.
It seems that the government has till now not responded to the draft submitted during the last week of June, asking for the government to approve the time for the preparation of the up-coming National games to be held at Guwahati during the month of October. “We have submitted the draft but still there is no response from the state government” said the state coach. He also remembers the time when the Association requested in writing to Wangyuh Konyak, the present Lok Sabha Member, when he was with the Sports Authority of India (SAI), to include the state Archery discipline like the other state authorities which have already included the said discipline.
During the past year, some of the team members have left the training process because of the lack of infrastructure even though they had joined with the intention of becoming full-time archers. “It would be very good on the part of the Naga archers to have a separate training academy where people can be trained for the whole year and take up the profession as a full-time occupation” said the duo archers. “We the Nagas have the ability to compete even with other nations provided that the government provides us with proper facilities and equipments” said Dianu, who dreams of competing in the Olympics in future. They also expressed regrets on the schedule of their training before any national tournaments. “We hardly get to practice for a maximum of 15 days before we go for any kind of championship which is not enough for us to compete with participants from other states who receive training from their coaches throughout the year” it was added.
Though the lack of proper sports infrastructure is being felt across the inner suburbs; yet Nagaland has been able to produce quite a good number of sports personalities who have already found themselves a place in the national sports scenario.
“If the Government of Nagaland could work on raising awareness and match it with additional funding for sporting facilities, then we are sure that the Nagas are second to none, and can earn medals and laurels for the state as well as for the nation” says Dianu, who has represented the state in various state and national level tournaments and has won several medals particularly for the state. “There is no point encouraging person to get active if the facilities aren’t there.”
While Archery as a sport has not received the same prominence as other sports, Naga archers have consistently put Nagaland on the map through its achievements. Maybe its time the Nagaland Government did something more concrete in providing the need of Naga archers.
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