No job, no coach but he was not deterred. He went on to win a gold in the archery World Cup
NEW DELHI: The FITA (International Archery Federation) lauded India’s Jayanta Talukdar, who won the individual recurve gold in the World Cup Grand Prix on Saturday by describing the Assam-born archer as the ‘rising star’ of archery.
Back home, however, the national champion in recurve failed to find a decent job before the World Cup and just prior to the departure of the Indian team for the championship in Porec (Croatia),Talukdar was stranded without his regular coach, Lim Chae-Woong from South Korea. In fact, the Indian team reached Crotia with a stop-gap arrangement as chief coach Lim quit his job in a huff just before the meet.
The Sports Ministry withdrew Lim’s visa because he suddenly left the Indian camp and flew back to his country. Lim, who was also employed with the Tata Archery Academy, quit because of differences with the Archery Association of India. The Korean coach wanted to control all the existing archery centres in the country which the AAI thought wasn’t possible since each centre is financially run by independent bodies like the Army, Tatas and the Sports Authority of India.
The drawbacks notwithstanding, Talukdar displayed nerves of steel to beat the gold and silver medal winners of 2004 Olympics. Talukdar was part of the Indian team which won the silver medal in the World Championship in Madrid in 2005. In February, Talukdar had upset Kim Sung Nam of Korea to win the recurve title at the first Asian Grand Prix in Thailand.
He is the new No 1
Indian archer Jayanta Talukdar has become the top-ranked archer in the world after clinching the individual recurve gold in the just concluded FITA Meteksan Archery World Cup at Porec, Croatia.
Talukdar will get Rs 1 lakh from the Archery Association of India for achieving the feat.
The next World Cups will be played at Antalia (Turkey) from June 9 to 14, El Salvador from June 21 to 28, Shanghai from September 1 to 5 and Mexico from October 15.
Talukdar, who was picked up during a talent hunt by the Tata Academy in 2000, has so far won three individual gold medals and three team silver medals in his two-year international career.
His story so far
Jayant Talukdar, 20 hails from Guwahati
Declined a clerical job in the India railways
Trains at the Jamshedpur based Tata Archery Academy where he is on a stipend
In the World Cup he beat the current Olympic champ, Marco Galiazzo of Italy, to win the gold
The only glitch is that none of the top Koreans in the recurve event were not present
Was part of the Indian team that won silver in the Madrid World Championships in 2005
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