Left with bamboo arrows, champion archer wants to bow out

In November 2007, a promising young archer from Benaras Hindu University struck two gold medals at the Junior National Archery Championship in Amrawati (Maharashtra), and also set a national record.

Six months later, Satish Dubey (18), an undergraduate student, who once aspired for Olympic glory, is now considering to quit the sport in absence of resources.

“Archery demands resources to get a quality bow and arrows,” Satish, son of Nandu Dubey, an employee with the state fisheries department in Ghazipur, said on Thursday.

“Despite heading a middle-class family of five children, my father shelled out all his savings to buy a Korean bow worth Rs 1.35 lakh in August last year. It, however, may not help because arrows meant for a bamboo bow cannot be effectively used with the imported one.”

An annual expense of nearly Rs 1.5 lakh is required to buy imported arrows, Satish said. His Korean bow is therefore lying unutilised for nearly nine months.

Instead of practising archery, the sportsman has been running from pillar to post to secure monetary help.

Satish has approached everyone — from the Varanasi and Ghazipur district magistrates to regional sports officers, local MLAs to the city Mayor. “I recently wrote to Chief Minister Mayawati. If nothing happens now, I will be forced to quit the game forever,” Satish said.

“If I had been with the Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur, or the Mittal Champions Trust in Bangalore, or even the Army Sports Institute, things would have been different. Uttar Pradesh is no place for promising players,” Satish said.

He had made his national championship debut in 2005 at Jamshedpur representing Rajasthan.

He has already represented Rajasthan and UP at seven national (junior and senior) championships. It was solely due to his performance that the BHU finished fourth in the All India Inter-University Championship in 2007, missing the bronze by just two points.

Satish played badminton before switching to archery in 2004. He started training under former national coach Aditya Kumar in Varanasi and was among the top 40 archers of the country by 2006. “I wanted to excel at the 2012 London Olympics. For that, I have to first succeed at the national trials to be held over the next two months. Without good arrows, I may not achieve anything,” he said.

He is also miffed with the BHU, as the university is still to pay him the Rs 1,200 he spent from his own pocket to procure the target from Kolkata.

“The only thing they have given me till date is a bamboo bow and arrows,” he added.

Despite winning the golden double and setting the national record at Amrawati, the state is still to honour him. Former vice-chairman of BHU’s sports board R G Singh had also written to former Vice-Chancellor Panjab Singh for a scholarship of Rs 2,000 to Satish, but nothing has moved on the proposal. Present vice-chairman of the board N N Singh said, “The matter is under consideration and we will surely take care it.”

New Vice-Chancellor D P Singh had recently said that talented students of BHU will represent the country at the Commonwealth Games 2010, and Satish is the most deserving candidate for it.

When told that Satish was contemplating to leave the sport, UP Archery Association President and senior BJP leader Kalraj Mishra said, “I will ensure all help to Satish so that he can pursue his dream.”