There will be 24 medals at stake in eight events, four each for men and women ( recurve men, recurve women, compound men and compound women), in archery in the 2010 Commonwealth Games. The Indian archers hope to hit the bullseye in a big way at Delhi. This comes after some remarkable performances by Indian archers in the World Cup meets.
The 12-member archery team is expected to rain medals for the host country. The team was selected from 69 probables after trials held in August. However, top archer Mangal Singh Champia has missed the bus for the Delhi Games.
Incidentally, archery was not there in 2006 Melbourne Games and it is for the second time that it will be featured in the Commonwealth Games. The last time the archery competition was held in 2002 Games at Brisbane. India did not participate that time around. But eight years later, archery could be India’s biggest medal winning sport at the Games.
Some of the top archers in the world like Canada’s Dietmar Trillus (a former world champion), Olympian Marie-PIer-Beaduet (Canada) and Australia’s Matthew Gray will be there for the bow and arrow sport at Delhi. The hosts will face challenge from countries like England, Australia, South Africa, Canada and Malaysia.
Former world champion Dola Banerjee and World number nine in recurve event, Jayanta Talukdar, will lead the Indian challenge. It also has top archers like Rahul Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai. World No. 11 Dola will lead India’s charge in the women’s recurve teams with L Bombayala and Dipika Kumari. The archery event will take place at the Yamuna Sports Complex from October 4-10. According to the Archery Association of India’s secretary-general Paresh Mukherjee, archers will definitely boost India’s overall tally.
“The trials were very competitive. We have trained better than ever in the last two years because of the support from the government. We are expecting around 16 medals,” said Mukherjee after the trials in August.
The Indian hopes rest mainly on the men’s recurve team of Rai, Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee. The team had won gold in the Invitational Commonwealth Games Test in March. Rai also claimed individual gold in that event.
Talukdar is in rich form. He won bronze in the men’s individual recurve for the first time in his World Cup archery finals at Edinburgh last week. The Indian archers have been hitting the bullseye consistently. The men’s side won the gold at World Cup Stage II at Antalya, Turkey, also this year. Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee also clinched gold at the 4th Archery World Cup at Shanghai. India outwitted Japan team of Ryota Amano, Takaharu Furukawa, Hidekl Kikuchi 224-220 in the finals. The Indian trio defeated Great Britain (218 Vs 216) in pre-quarter final, USA (225 Vs 208) in quarterfinal and China team (222 Vs 217) in semifinal on their way to the final. Britian have been defeated by India twice in World Cup meets.
In the women’s section, Dola will be the key to India’s fortunes. She has won medals in all the major events, including gold at 2007 World Cup at England and World Cup at Dubai. Her last big medal was gold at fifth Asian Grand Prix at Dhaka in 2009. Deepika Kumari is following in the footsteps of Dola. The 17-year-old Ranchi girl is a very talented archer. She has already won two silver medals in World Cup meets. Apart from that, Kumari struck gold at second Asian Grand Prix meet at Bangkok this year.
The only drawback for the Indian archers is the lack of practice at the Yamuna Complex at Delhi. That is the worry that chief coach Limba Ram has but otherwise there will be no doubt that archers would bring joy to the host country.