The Hindu : Sport / Archery : India hopes to do well

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 08, 2004

Sport

Sport - Archery

India hopes to do well

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, MAY 7. Despite the poor showing by the Indian archery contingent at the first European Grand Prix held at Rovereto in Italy earlier this month, the Archery Association of India (AAI) thinks the debacle is not a major setback in the run-up to the Olympic Games in August.

The AAI technical committee chairman and senior vice-president, P.N. Mukherjee, who accompanied the squad, sounded very disappointed at the outcome and cited the stage fright as one of the reasons for the below par performance. ``The field was very big, larger than the Olympics. This is something the Indians did not expect. They did not see a competition of such magnitude,'' he said.

``Competitions were held in group-wise and this was the first time the Indian archers experienced this kind of a situation. This was owing to very large field,'' he further explained.

Going into the GP, the Indians could have done far better had they maintained the form they showed at the National ranking circuit meets, Bangkok Asian circuit meet, Yangon Asian championship or even the New York World championship last July.

Mr. Mukherjee thought a combination of over confidence and lack of focus were also the main reasons for the below par showing. ``Take for example, we expected a lot from Tarundeep Rai, one of the main stays in the men's team and in individual championship. He changed his equipment, with which he was shooting well, prior to the GP. Secondly he sounded very confident of himself prior to the championship; too confident, I suppose,'' he said.

Among the men, Viswas and Satyadev Prasad finished 35th and 36th. Majhi Sawaiyan ended 80th, Rai was 89th and Mukhesh Khillare 106th in the qualifier. Both Viswas and Prasad lost in the round of 32 in the individual competition to be ranked joint 22nd and 29th respectively. India failed to cross the first round losing to Ukraine to end 15th overall in the team championship.

In the distaff side, only Dola Banerjee could finish sixth overall after losing in the quarterfinals. Chekrovolu Swuro was joint 41st and Reena Kumari was joint 45th. In the qualifier, Reena was 20th, Dola was 24th , Chekrovolu was 31st and Manjudha Soy was 70th. The Indian women's team, which lost to France in the first round, was placed 15th.

The technical committee chairman said the focus would now be firmly on the next Grand Prix to be held in Germany from June 14 to 20. ``The discomfiture the squad suffered should have shaken it badly. The AAI will only send four men and as many women to the next two GPs. We will also participate in a smaller meet in Slovenia prior to the German GP. A good performance there will give the Indian archers the much needed boost,'' he said.

The probables have already arrived at the SAI, Kolkata for a camp under the Ivan Yotov Ivanov. The Bulgarian, who figured consistently in the top 20 in the world during his career, is expected to play a greater role in the days to come. The next big domestic meet, the fourth National ranking circuit meet comes up at Kolkata from May 28 to 31. The squad for the Slovenia and German GP will be named after this meet.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport