The Hindu : Sport / Archery : India making rapid strides

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Saturday, Jul 30, 2005

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Sport - Archery

India making rapid strides

Special Correspondent

With no `stars,' the achievements are collective

HYDERABAD: From a lowly 22nd in the 1999 World championships in France, Indian archery has been on overdrive.

At the Beijing edition two years later, the men's recurve team reached the 16th position and the women, 12th. In New York, 2003, the men finished fourth, the women sixth.

Last month at Madrid, Spain, the men were runners-up and the women, fourth.

With no `stars,' the achievements are collective. Yet each archer has recorded a rise in his or her performance, Tarundeep Rai missing the individual bronze at Madrid, finishing fourth.

"In national competition, about 20 girls vie to represent India. Of these, just half a dozen have catapulted the country to a fourth place finish," says Anil Kamineni, Secretary General, Archery Association of India (AAI).

"Injection of fresh talent on the distaff side may fetch us the Asian/Olympic/World championship gold that's been eluding us," he adds. Not that the men lag behind. South Korea is the last hurdle to the team gold, an indication of India's progress, that's left super powers such as Ukraine, China, the United States and Poland in its wake.

Korean domination

Korea as world-beater, dominates both the men's and women's competitions. India's display in both streams being exemplary, its credentials to launch an assault on an international title are impressive.

How did the Indian upsurge happen?

At the Busan Asian Games, the national squads fared well in qualifiers but were wiped out in the elimination rounds. Soul-searching revealed that the fear of removal saw scores sink. To cope with that pressure, the AAI increased frequency of national-level competition to one every six weeks.

To take on the best, one of that kind was necessary. At the AAI's request, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) appointed Lim Chae Woong, whose wards were regulars in the Korean teams. To assist Lim, coaches Purnima Mahato and Lokesh Kumar were urged to adopt his methods.

The Army Sports Institute in Pune roped in Chae Hong Ghi, who until then trained a Japanese varsity team. With Ravi Shanker as deputy, Ghi lifted army archery to new levels.

With its own resources, the AAI spent Rs. 50 lakh since 2003 on prize money alone, a purse set aside even for the men's 16th place!

The AAI's immediate aim is for laurels in the Delhi Asian championships in November. In the long term, it's two pronged, says Kamineni: gold at the Beijing Games in 2008 and the World junior championships, slated for Delhi, the same year.

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