Archer Anjani hits bull's eye

Hyderabad: While the city is planning to welcome the New Year in an umpteen number of ways, city-based child archer, Chandana Sai Anjani Bethu, did it in her own way by setting up a new one in her name - a world record.

Witnessed by a jubilant and cheering crowd, Sunday was the happening day for 11-year-old Anjani, a class 6 student of TATVA Global School, Gajularamaram, and made the wonder happen.

All set to showcase her talent in barebow and destined to make something big and special, Anjani met her target of 76 arrow shots at 10 meter distance in 15 minutes 15 seconds within a time 8 minutes and went on to set a new record of 136 arrows in the given time.

Her record was registered in the International Wonder and Genius Book of Records.

Sharing her joy with The Hans India, the young kid Anjani said: "I was very happy and was speechless for a while. I am planning to take my game further by participating in my first international games, next year."

Making a foray into the game of late in June 2019, Anjani began practicing archery aggressively for the past six months under coaches Ramesh and Gangaraju and her efforts paid dividends.

She emerged triumphant in the First Federation Cup National Rural Games Championship - 2019 held at Munnar in Kerala on November 24.

She won gold in 50m Under-14 category and got selected for the Asia Pacific National Rural Games to be held at Thailand in 2020.

Prior to this, she stood as a runner-up in the Under-14 field archery category at 65th District-level SGF school games conducted in the month of September and got eligible for the State-level games.

Taking about her success she said: "Dedication, passion, hard work and moral support of the family and techniques of game from coaches was her mantra to success in spite of making entry into the game off late."

"Follow your passion, put in your best into it, hard work and dedication are the secret keys to anything in this world," is what she wishes to convey to children as she awaits for a new year.

Anjani, hailing from the town of Bhimavaram in Andhra Pradesh, is also well supported and encouraged in her endeavours by her family members – mother Sri Lakshmi, father Satyanrayana and her brothers Anudeep and Nishanth.

The child prodigy is also good at skating, swimming and badminton. She is very much interested in arts and crafts.