India’s male archers plan to do an action replay of Sourav Ganguly’s torso-baring celebrations if they manage to notch up an Olympic medal at Lord’s.
Veteran archer Tarundeep Rai is all excited about taking aim at the historic cricket venue, which will host the archery competition during the Olympics.
“At this moment, we are not looking too far. I don’t know what it would be like. But surely, we would celebrate like Ganguly (by baring torso and swirling the jersey) had done (in 2002),” Rai told PTI .
Aiming a fourth straight Olympic title, the South Korean men archers’ maybe supremely confident but against the Indians, the world champions would surely find themselves jittery, felt Rai.
Fresh from grabbing the quota places in the final Olympic qualification meet at the World Cup Stage III in Ogden this month, the resurgent Indians are yet to lose against the mighty Koreans, with a two out of two win record in one year.
From being number one till the World Cup 2011 Stage I in May when they beat Korea in the semifinals before losing to the U.S. to settle for a silver, India slipped to number six.
In fact, when their women counterparts qualified for the Olympics from World Championships, the men’s team went on a losing spree and the critics wrote them off.
As fate would have it, the Indians lifted the giant monkey off their back when they stunned the Koreans in World Cup 2012 Stage II in May this year to return to winning ways.
They later clinched the Olympic berth on the sidelines of Stage III this month.
“It was like a life-coming-a-full-circle moment. 2011 was like a punishment. People were only talking about us whenever we went out. It was humiliating,” Rai, who would compete in his second Olympics, said.
