PHOTOS: EXPRESS
PESHAWAR: Archery is an ancient sport. A bow and arrow was a tested weapon in the hands of a huntsman and also a soldier.
Armies of ancient empires had special formations of archers who would shoot barrage of arrows to take down enemy soldiers from a distance.
Like many other martial skills, archery too has become a sport like javelin throw, fencing and such.
However, a martial sport like archery has found an unlikely patron in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Sara Khan runs Pakhtunkhwa Archery Club on the grounds of Qayum Stadium in Peshawar.
The club has gained popularity over the past few years and both men and women, besides wheelchair-bound people come to learn and practice the sport.
Sara Khan told The Express Tribune that her students include people from across the province and even tribal areas.
She said that she was fascinated by the sport since her childhood. “I learnt archery along with my brother.”
Sports facilities needed to bring Baloch into mainstream: BSB
Realising that archery lacked sponsors and promoted and was not as popular as it should be in K-P, Sara said, she opened a club to teach the sport free.
She said that Pakistan Sport Board (PSB) provided space for teaching archery and K-P Sports Board also extended cooperation for promoting the sport.
Within a span of few years, archery has become part of National Games.
She said owing to lack of sponsorship many people get distracted from the sport for high cost of the equipment.
"If we find more sponsors for archery, we can produce world class talent worthy of representing the country in the Olympics," Sara added.
The Pakhtunkhwa Archery Club has organised events to introduce the sport at schools, universities and also on government level, which have inspired many young athletes.
"We are training 25 players at Pakhtunkhwa Archery Club which include five wheelchair-bound people,” she said.
Training sessions are held every day and once in a week players compete amongst themselves.
Archers from the club have participated at national and local level, Sara said reminding that the club stood fifth in 2016 National Games and won gold and silver medals at National Archery Championship held in Karachi.
Archery: Academies to be built in Balochistan
Meanwhile, in the All Pakistan Inter-Provincial Archery Championship held at Quetta last week, the men’s team of K-P hit the bulls-eye for gold medal, followed by Punjab with silver medal and Balochistan took bronze medal.
Pakistan Archery Federation Muhammad Wisal Khan received and garlanded the K-P Archery team soon after arrival at Qayyum Sports Complex last week.
Team coach Sara Khan, players and PSB Coaching Centre Director Salman Khan were also present on this occasion.
One of the promising archer Israr Khan of Pakhtunkhwa Archery Academy won individual gold medal by securing 538 points including 13 10 pointers while Wajahat Ullah secured silver medal with 537 points and Qasim of Punjab took third position.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 7th, 2019.
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