 The common complaint against Indian archers for long was that they have always failed to live up to their potential in international tournaments.
There cannot be a better opportunity than the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in New Delhi next month for the archers to bury that view forever. India named a 12-member strong squad after a selection trial among 64 probables (which was later pruned down to 24). There weren't many surprises except for Tarundeep Rai finding a berth in the recurve side with Beijing Olympian Mangal Singh Champia missing out. But in archery, like most other sports, it's the present form that matters rather than past records and in that respect, Rai fits in perfectly.
The archers made an early start for the CWG with their camp beginning in Kolkata in March 2009. All the probables along with the coaches and support staff were stationed there permanently.
There were no exposure trips but the archers took part in a number of international meets like the different legs of the World Cup and the Asian Grand Prix events in between. Thus, the selected archers are not short on match practice, and are raring to go. As a matter of fact the level of competition that they faced over the past year was much higher than what they are expected to encounter in New Delhi. With no Korea and China in CWG, logically, there is every reason to be optimistic about India's chances of winning a handful of the 24 medals on offer.
The Indian hopes rest mainly on the men's recurve team of Rai, Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee. The team had won the gold medal in the Invitational Commonwealth Games Test event staged at the Yamuna Sports Complex in New Delhi during March. Rai also claimed individual gold in that event.
The men's side picked up a gold at World Cup Stage II at Antalya, Turkey also this year. CWG will be one of the biggest events for the compound archers since compound archery is not an Olympic event. The competition in compound category is expected to be much tougher than in recurve category in CWG with teams like Australia, South Africa and Canada all capable of surprising any team.
But still national coach Limba Ram is hopeful of at least two gold medals - in men's and women's team events - from Indian compound archers.
However, the Olympian would have preferred to camp in New Delhi a month before the Games. "It would have been nice if we could have got an opportunity to practise at the venue for some more time. But still I am hopeful that my boys and girls will enjoy home advantage as in archery, conditions play a very important role," Limba said.
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