Hailing the Indian team's performance at the 42nd World Archery championships at Van Cortland Park, New York, team coach Sanjeev Singh said it is the best performance in the history of Indian achery.

Speaking to Jharkhand Archery Association president T Mukherjee from New York, Sanjeev said, the men's team has a good chance of winning a medal at the Athens Olympics.

The Indian men's team reached the semi-finals while the women's team won their 1/8th match in the tournament, which concluded on Monday. Their good showing earned them berths at the Olympics.

The archers registered their highest scores in an international meet. The men's team improved their ranking to 8th from 13th in the FITA qualification round, when they beat Russia with a score of 249 to 241 points.

In the pre-quarter-finals they beat Ukraine to improve their team ranking to fourth place with a score of 247 against Ukraine's 244.

The women's team beat Turkey with a score of 236 to 231 in the 1/8th round but then lost to Ukraine 236-239.

Mukherjee said the Indian women's team was trained at the Tata Archery Academy, which was set up in 1996.

Leading Indian scorers:

Men: Satyadev 1314, Ved Kumar 1294, Tarun Deep 1288.

Women: Reena Kumari 1318, Dola Bannerjee 1311, Chekrovolu Swuro 1308 and Bhegyabati Chanu 1280.

Also see: Indian archers in New York

Chekrovolu does Nagaland proud