Way off the mark in the LondonOlympics, future is tense for India's much-hyped archers aftera woeful 2012 during which the Sports Ministry derecognisedthe association for election irregularities.
Lack of planning came to fore in their debacle at theLondon Olympics as the six-member contingent, boasting ofworld number one Deepika Kumari, drew a blank at the Games.
In a sport that requires fine precision, the archerspeaked exactly a month before the Olympics when the men's teamwon the quota places in the World Cup Stage III.
From there, it was downward slide, as the archers couldnot guard against complacency and made their exits in eitherround one or two of the Olympics.
India had hoped for at least two medals -- one in thewomen's individual through Deepika and the second from themen's trio of Tarundeep Rai, Jayanta Talukdar and RahulBanerjee who had shown fine form at the qualifiers in Ogden amonth back.
But London came as a rude jolt.
Deepika made a first round exit, ditto for ChekrovoluSwuro, while Laishram Bombayla Devi, in her second Olympicappearance advanced to second round of 32. As a team, theyfailed to go beyond round of 16.
The men's team suffered a similar fate, bowing out in thefirst round, the prequarters, while in the individual event,India's best bet, Jayanta Talukdar, qualified as 53rd seed andwent down in the first round.
The other two members, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee,could cross the first round hurdle but were thrashed by theirrespective opponents in the second round of 32.
India had earned the quota places in the women's sectionthrough the World Championship in July last year, a yearbefore the Olympics, but the Archery Association of India hadjumped the gun announcing that the same trio of Deepika,Bombayla and Chekrovolu would go to London.