During the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, the first soccer captain of Independent India, a lanky, barefooted Naga native from Mokokchung’s Changki village in Nagaland led the Indian national soccer team against a sturdy French side. The French versus India match, played at the Lynn Road Stadium, was on July 31, 1948.
59 years to this month July 11, 2011 a Naga archer has picked a date with destiny to walk in the steps of Dr. Talimeren Ao, the Indian soccer captain who stomped the French barefooted.
Chekrovolu Swuro readies for London 2012 Olympics
On Wednesday, July 6, Chekrovolu Swuro, from Phek district of Nagaland qualified for the London Olympics after winning the silver medal in the world archery championships in Turin, Italy with compatriots Deepika Kumari and Laishram Bombayla Devi. The achievement is no less extraordinary even more that the Italy event is also the very first time that the Indian women archery team is entering the final of the World Championship, for the first time in the history of Indian archery.
Extraordinarily, this is the second time Swuro is qualifying for the Olympics. She qualified for the 2004 Athens Olympics but could not be the “second Naga Olympian” after she was dropped from the Indian archery squad for reasons that remain sketchy to this day. In September 2004 the Nagaland unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had written an angry letter to the Olympic Association and the Sports Ministry demanding clarification on the reasons Swuro was ‘omitted’ from the Indian archery contingent to the Athens Olympics. The BJP has also denounced the ‘bias’ and discrimination against sportspersons from the North East Region.
By a startling twist of fate, the national archer qualifies for the 2012 London Olympics, which starts in July, as did the first Naga Olympian before her more than half century ago, in July and in London.
This daily contacted the archer, who returned recently from Italy. However, owing to constraints of time and activity and her return from Italy today, an interaction was not possible for the time being.
On the website of the Archery Association of India, the association’s president Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra jubilantly congratulates the Indian women’s team of Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro for confirming three quota places for the 2012 Olympics in London and for entering the World Championship finals for the first time in the history of Indian archery.
“It was really a wonderful performance by the Indian contingent and the recurve women’s team deserves special appreciation because of its commendable victory over World Champion Korea in the semi-finals,” Prof. Malhotra said. “I am personally very happy to hear the good news in a day and wish them all the very best for bringing more glory and laurels for the country in the World Championship,” the Indian Archery Association’s message stated.
Official placements of archers in the national team for the London Olympics are yet to be announced. Nonetheless, the women’s recurve team by winning a berth, silver, automatically books a spot for the Olympics.
As the archer readies for her second Olympic appointment – second time lucky to compete in the global games this time around, hopefully – another biting irony stands out stark reminding of the state of the sports sector in Nagaland. The irony is, while both the sportspersons T Ao and now Swuro, are hailed as Naga heroes, they represent more competitive states than their home states, Nagaland. Most people in Assam state still attribute Dr. T Ao’s representation in 1948 Olympics as Assam’s very own while Swuro has represented Jharkhand state.
