NEW DELHI: All the Tokyo-bound recurve archers along with Olympic hopefuls will receive their second dose of Covishield on April 7 before flying out for the World Cup Stage I in Guatemala City which starts from April 19. The vaccination process is being taken care of by the Indian Army as the national camp is underway at the Army Sports Institute in Pune.
So far the men’s trio of Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav and Deepika Kumari have qualified for Tokyo. But the Archery Association of India (AAI) is confident that the women’s team will qualify at the Final Qualification Tournament in Paris. The remaining two archers in the fray for the Games are Ankita Bhakat and Komolika Bari.
All eight recurve exponents part of the camp including the fourth member in both the men’s and women’s team — B Dhiraj and Madhu Vedwan — who will participate in all the World Cups and be part of the reserves is also being inoculated. The list also includes two coaches and support staff. The sportspersons had received their first dose back in March after the selection trials. The B team has been sent home from the camp and only the A team are in Pune currently.
“The Army have decided to help with the archers’ vaccination. They will receive their second dose in the next 15 days. Safety of our Olympic archers is of paramount importance to us,” a senior AAI official informed.
Keeping the safety aspect in mind, it is likely that the top four athletes in each category will miss out on the chance to shoot at the senior nationals. A final decision will be taken once the dates are fixed.
Looking for an alternate venue
The senior nationals was earlier supposed to be held in Chittaranjan in West Bengal in April after the Railways agreed to organise the event. However, elections in the state and the accessibility of the town meant alternate plans had to be made.
Ranchi was earmarked but the worsening Covid-19 situation across the country has meant that AAI have put plans to host the tournament on hold. Even the sub-junior nationals has seen venues being changed twice (Amravati and Raipur) but now it has been postponed once again.
“In the next two months, it will be difficult to conduct nationals due to the high number of cases. We will have to chalk out a new calendar once the situation shows signs of improving,” the official said.