Quiver full of hope for India's archers at Commonwealth Games

Archery, arguably, is a sport that was born in India. So, when it was reintroduced in the Delhi Commonwealth Games after a gap of 28 years, it was welcomed with open arms.

Today, Indian archers are performing well and are taken seriously. But it wasn’t so before the 1990s. The credit for revival of the interest in the sport largely goes to Limba Ram.

After putting India on the world archery map in 1992 with his stupendous performance at Asia Championships where he equalled the world record and missed out on a bronze by one point at the Barcelona Olympics, Limba Ram is now showing youngsters the way.

“When I used to practice in national camps, we had only 25 archers. Today we have more than 400. Railways, CRP, Punjab and Services among others are promoting the game. This is a very healthy sign,” said Limba, who is now the India coach.

Limba coaches a team which enjoys good combination. It’s a mixture of youth and experience and all the archers have been in outstanding form.
In the men’s recurve team, Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee, brother of former world champion Dola, are in good nick.

Talukdar recently won the men’s individual recurve for the first time in his third World Cup archery finals at the expense of Italy’s Marco Galiazzo in the play-off at Edinburgh. Joining them is senior archer Tarundeep Rai, who too will be eager to show his skills.

The trio is high on confidence, especially, after their gold medal triumph in the World Cup Stage 4 in Shanghai with a record 224 score, highest so far by the men’s side. Moreover, the same team stood on top of the podium in Turkey after a record sweep in Invitational CWG at Delhi in March this year.

On the other hand, in the women’s section Dola will lead the charge. She started the year by striking gold at the South Asian Games. She is yet to repeat the performance though. Along with her will be L Bombayla Devi and cadet world champion Deepika Kumari. The emergence of Ranchi girl Deepika has proved that archery is still alive in the B tier cities.

The home team archers stand a good chance of dominating the recurve but it won’t be easy in the compound event. India will have a tough task as teams like Australia, South Africa and Canada have archers, who have been using compound bow for a long time.

The compound event is new for India but Limba is positive about it. “I know we are slightly weak, but my wards will do well. There is no pressure on them. I have just told them not to take anyone lightly. And give their best.”

Echoing similar views was Dola. “It was introduced in India a few years ago. However, the team is confident of winning a medal,” she said.