NAGOYA: Three gold medals in a single day! Not a bad day at the office. India’s gold medal tally reached 10, including one in shooting. Focus, however, had been on archery, especially compound. India had to defend five gold medals from the last edition. Out of the five, they have already won three, with all three coming on Wednesday morning.
Tweak in training methods, Indian food in Nagoya, staying close to the venue, relaxed environment, match simulations and more: that’s how archers prepared for the Asian Games. When the compound archers stepped on the stage for their semi-final and, subsequently, final, they already knew about the venue. The surroundings, flags, stage and even the way the crowd was cheering –- everything was familiar. The archers trained in such a setting four days a week for a month at Sonepat.
Finally, there was no rain on Wednesday. The Okazaki Central Park is some 55km away from Nagoya. As the train moves further away from the city, the population gets sparse. There is a bit more greenery around. The archery venue is nestled in a quaint neighbourhood of Nagoya on a green hillock. The complex has a baseball field, gymnasium, volleyball and tennis courts. The conditions were ideal for archery. Even the breeze was mild.
India is known for compound archery. It dominates the world in this particular category, and it was expected of them to win all the top medals at the Asian Games. It started with the women’s team medal when Jyothi Surekha, T Chikitha and teenager Prithika Pradeep combined to win gold with a world record. Prithika is a case in point with respect to the strength in depth in Indian compound archery. The college first-year student in economics, who picked up the sport only because she liked the word, has been a revelation. There will likely be more Prtihika's in the pipeline.
If that was the appetiser, the main course was delicious as the mixed team of Chikitha and Sahil Jadhav delivered not just the gold but also a ticket to LA28. They were immaculate with their arrows that hit the bull’s eye more than anyone else’s. Jadhav added a second gold along with Kushal Dalal and T Ganesh Mani Ratnam in the men's team event.
How the team prepared
In the lead-up to the Asian Games, the archery team was stationed in Sonepat. The coaches turned the entire archery course into a competition venue. They even brought archers and other trainees to distract the team.
“At SAI Sonipat, we set up the same environment,” said India’s national coach Jiwanjot Singh Teja, who was with the women’s team in the final. “We installed the same screens, used the same music system, set up identical targets, and built the same podium, flags, and colour scheme. Then, we formed another team from the Centre of Excellence to compete against our national team two to four times a week.”
The team management had other tweaks as well. “We have been doing pressure training continuously, but this complete venue setup was created last month, and we trained in it for 15 days,” said the coach.
There has been a slight change in their training as well. They have decreased arrow load and increased off-archery training more. They have also focused on concentrating on specifics.
There is another way to keep calm under pressure. The coach was trying to speak to them about the 2024 Paris Games. “We were cracking jokes and not thinking too much about the match,” he said.
As soon as compound archery found its way into the Olympics, other teams started preparing for it as well. China, not even part of any World Cup-winning teams, started to thrive. This time they were in the final in women’s team and semifinal in mixed.
“Our team was stronger because we delivered the exact same performance here that we were producing during practice,” said the coach. Jiwanjot shifted to Canada for some time and when the team started slipping, he was brought back. The coach with more than 30 years of experience set targets and goals for the players.
Even during practice, he used to ask them to hit 10s and X's (inner 10s). "I used to tell them, ‘If you shoot six arrows, all six must be 10s, and at least three must be Xs’. At the end of practice, we would say that only those who hit six X's could wrap up for the day,” he said.
Dave Cousins, the high performance director, also spoke about process and simulation. He added that they ensured the players were exposed to different weather conditions as well.
The archers were accustomed to the hot and damp conditions of Sonepat. The biggest challenge for them was to simulate really cold and rainy days. “A day like today feels like home, but it's about 10, 15 degrees Celsius cooler,” said Cousins. They had a solution for that too. They exposed them to those conditions through training in different centres around the country.
Since the mixed team has secured the quota so early, it would be easy for India to now focus on that event.
Nothing was left to chance. The food here was a little difficult to adjust for some of the athletes, so the Indian Olympic Association and the Sports Authority of India helped them arrange that. They also housed the archers closer to the venue.
For the athletes, it has been one of the biggest wins.
