Former Olympian and SAI's High Performance Director Sanjeeva Singh believes India's archery medal drought should end at Paris 2024. (More Sports News)
Six Indian archers – Dhiraj Bommadevara, Pravin Jadhav, Tarundeep Rai, Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat -- have won quota places for Paris 2024. After a training and acclimatization stint at Compiegne in France, the archers were among the first to enter the Paris Olympics Games Village.
Sanjeeva Singh, a 1988 Olympian, is confident India can secure at least three archery medals at the Paris Games. The former Olympian and current SAI High Performance Director attributes this optimism to the team's rigorous preparation.
Notably, both Singh and India's Korean coach, Baek Woong Ki, will be absent from Paris.
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“Compared to Tokyo, the preparation has been better planned with a lot of stress on scientific training, mental conditioning and more importantly, tweaking the nature of domestic tournaments in line with the Olympic format,” Singh said.
“If we go by current form and the way the archers are performing, we can realistically look at three medals – men’s individual, men’s team and mixed team. Out of these three, one will definitely happen. A medal from the women’s competition will be a bonus but the team has to click together,” she added.
India's men's archery team has enjoyed a stellar year, culminating in a historic World Cup gold in April. The trio of Rai, Jadhav, and Bommadevara stunned reigning Olympic champions South Korea to clinch the title, marking a 14-year drought-breaker.
This victory injected immense confidence into the team as they prepared for the crucial Olympic qualifier in Antalya, Turkey.
Singh stresses that Bommadevara is a medal prospect in men’s individual and if veteran Rai, who will be playing his fourth Olympics in Paris, doesn’t succumb to time pressure, the chances of a medal will go up in the team’s. Both the men’s and women’s team qualified for Paris 2024 on the basis of their current world rankings.
As per the current World Archery rankings, Indian men (238 points) are placed second behind South Korea (340). Chinese Taipei (226), People’s Republic of China (212) and Italy (207) complete the top five.
Meanwhile, in the women’s team world rankings, India are a distant eighth with 191 points. South Korea (296), China (271), France (255), Germany (254) and Mexico (232) are the top five nations. India are ranked ninth in the mixed team rankings with Korea, Japan and the USA among the top three.
Veterans Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das will be making their fourth Olympic appearances. Singh emphasized their crucial role in the team events while also acknowledging the importance of individual performance and pressure management.
The Paris Olympics archery competition starts at the Esplanade des Invalides, a garden of Paris’ most beautiful monuments, on July 25 with the rankings rounds in all five categories.
