‘Lenin’s death will leave a big void in compound archery’

NEW DELHI - The tragic death of coach Cherukuri Lenin is a huge loss for the country’s archers, feels Commonwealth Games medallists Rahul Banerjee and Jayanta Talukdar.

The 25-year-old Lenin died in a road accident near his hometown Vijaywada in wee hours of Sunday.

Though Rahul and Jayanta are recurve archers, they knew Lenin, a compound specialist, as a teammate.

Lenin later took to coaching with his father Cherukuri Satyanayana in Vijaywada and was also part of the Indian coaching staff during the Oct 3-14 Games. His students included upcoming archers from Andhra Pradesh and other parts of southern India.

Rahul, who won a individual gold and a team bronze in the Games, credited Lenin for the medals India got in the compound event. Compound archers Ritul Chatterjee and Chittiboma Jignes were both coached by Lenin and notched up silver medals in the Games.

“His death is a great loss for the new and the current lot of compound archers. It is because of him that we saw a lot of archers doing well from the southern part of our country,” Rahul told IANS.

Jayanta, who won two bronze medals in the Games, concurs.

“In a way, Lenin was looking after the archers of south India. He was giving training at the grassroot level and also to the established archers, something that is not done by other coaches. I wonder what will happen to the state of compound archery in India.”

Incidentally, Lenin’s sister Volga also died in a road accident five years ago and father Satyanarayana set up an archery academy in her memory. Lenin was the head coach of Volga Archery Academy.

As an international archer, Lenin will be best remembered for the gold he won during the 2005 Asian Championships in New Delhi and a silver in the Asian Grand Prix the same year.