Having secured berths in next year's Athens Olympicsafter their best-ever show in the World Championships, Indian archers are now pinning their hopes on winning gold in theworld's biggest sporting event.
"Our archers are capable of winning goldin Athens. Their performance in New York was unprecedented and ithighlighted the tremendous talent in the country," coachSanjeev Singh said in the Capital.
"No one had expected us to perform so well in theWorld Championships. But I had faith in their potential and their performanceproves that we are fast emerging as a powerhouse in the discipline."
TheIndian men's team booked a berth in the Olympics by virtue of their fourth-placefinish in the championship while the women stood sixth in the competition.
Advertisement
"The men played better than most. We defeated Russia, Ukraine andthis is no mean achievement. In the bronze medal match, though we lost to Italy, we played very well," Singh said.
The coach said he was impressed with the way thewomen's team, led by Dola Banerjee, performed.
"It was really good to see the girls outshiningthe boys in the competition. Three girls scored over 1300 points in the FITArounds as against only Satyadev Prasad.
"It was for the first time in the history ofIndian archery that four archers qualified for the elimination Olympicround," he said.
Reena Kumari, Dola and Chekrovolu Swuru scored 1318, 1311 and 1309points respectively in the elimination round while Prasad scored 1317points.
Advertisement
Besides the teams, Dola, Satyadev and Tarundeep Raisecured individual berths in the Olympics as well.
Lauding the achievement, the Archery Association of India(AAI) president, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, announced a cash incentive of Rs one lakheach for the teams.
He, however, cautioned the archers against complacencyand said they would have to continue to perform consistently to maintain theirpositions in the team.
"Their performance in New York does not qualifythem automatically to represent the team in Athens. We will take into accounttheir performance as well as of the others while selecting the team for theOlympics," Malhotra said.
He said the AAI will give enough internationalexposure to the players before the Olympics.
"There will be four international meets before theOlympics. Besides hiring foreign coaches for them, we will also appoint apsychologist.
"They need to carry on the good work from here andthe AAI is ready to do everything to boost India's chances in the Olympics," hesaid.
He said the AAI was holding negotiations with variouscorporate houses for sponsorship.
"The AAI is planning a tri-partite arrangement with theSports Authority of India and sponsors through FICCI to chalk-out anintensive training programme for the archers."
India's next outing will bethe Asian Archery Championship in Myanmar from 3-8 November.
PTI
