Struggling to explain the much-hyped archers’ flop-show at the Olympic Games, coaches Limba Ram and Ravi Shankar today said they have no excuses to offer for the below-par performance here.
“There are no excuses,” said Limba Ram at the Games village before the team’s departure to India.
“We trained hard, we were given all facilities by the Archery Association of India, the Sports Authority of India and the Government. We are also disappointed with the results,” he added.
The duo agreed that that hype around the team, which failed to go beyond quarterfinals, had raised the expectations but “that was natural”.
“The archers were doing well before the Olympics. Deepika Kumari was ranked World Number one by the International Federation and not by us. Our boys team came here ranked number two,” said Limba.
Limba said he cannot explain the sudden slump in the form of the archers. “To be honest, we came here with the hope of winning at least one medal.”
Ravi Shankar was also candid in his views, saying, “I have some observations to make but please do not construe them as excuses. Olympics are a totally different ball game.
“Our archers have participated in several World Championships and won few of them. But the overall aura of the Olympics is awesome and that too had a big impact. Only two of our archers Tarundeep and Bombayla Devi had previous experience of Olympic Games.”
“Several top archers of different countries who had performed very well in other championships also failed here,” said Shankar.
But he admitted that there were too many expectations from Deepika and she caved under that.
“Everybody was saying that this girl was the sure medal winner and that put a lot of pressure on the teenager and she could not cope with that,” said Shankar
“...the presence of huge crowd and the glitz surrounding the venue made Deepika nervous and that showed in her results,” he explained.
He admitted that the Indian archers could not adjust to the cross wind conditions.
“We tried hard, practised in these conditions but still could not make anything out of it and also luck also deserted our archers at crucial stages,” he said.
“The Windy conditions affected all the teams. See the scores of all the teams and you will notice the inconsistency. Unfortunately our archers fell ill a day after they landed here. It took couple of days for them to recover and that also had some impact on their physical training,” he added.
Ravi Shankar said despite this, the archers gave their 100 per cent.
“It is another thing that they failed to reproduce the form that had raised such hopes but this is part of sports and we will have to accept it,” he said.
Three men -- Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar -- formed the men’s archery team, while Deepika Kumari, L Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro comprised the women’s outfit.
Both the men’s and women’s teams failed miserably in the preliminary round itself.
The trend continued in the individual events, bringing a premature end to the country’s archery campaign at the Games with Deepika, touted as a strong medal prospect, failing to cross the first round.
Keywords: London 2012, London Olympics 2012, Summer Olympics 2012, Indian contingent at Olympics, Archery competitions
I can foresee many medals coming our way at the 2016 Rio Olympics...All the best !!
Its good to hear, what looks like honest retrospection. We train successful persons and we dont train successful personalities. Another factor for our failure in International platforms is we are not aggressive in delivering the result, but if they keep up the same training and tempo with in them selves, one day our archers will definitely deliver goods. After all failures are the stepping stones of success and they will learn how to over come the pressure,if they are exposed well. But to finish, their sucess would have inspired more archers in the country.
Never mind...next time with much better preparations...
Also It is good to hear that there was enormous support from Govt.
Every coming year we will improve medal by medal...
Just Keep your spirits high...rest everything will fall in line, sooner or later.
All Indians stand by you and with all athletes, irrespective of their performance in the games.
Pressure mgmt is the key here. I hope the athletes are counselled on
this aspect, which is very important for an event like the Olympics.
It's good to hear that Government and SAI provided all the facilities needed for the players. It's understandable that representing India at olympics is always puts immense pressure on players , given India's track record at olympics and expectations of billion plus population. But some how we have to break that jinx. Archery team has to introspect and fix the loop holes, they also have to understand that , it also takes emotional balance, mental toughness and ability to adapt to the conditions quickly along with skill and talent. Team should start working on those aspects as well to bring laurels to the country. Their candid acceptance of their defeat is the first step in that direction
This is the problem of Indian psychology, I have not seen a single player in India (May be except Leander Paes) who can perform under pressure. Even Tendulkar who is considered almost God has failed under pressure miserably. This also include Limbaram (those who remember his performances when he was playing, might agree).
Solution is probably to have some foreign or good Indian psychotherapist. If expectations are the problem, isolate them from everyone for few months like chinese are doing to some of their players
this should be a learning experience for all sport in India. You got to train harder and train smarter.
Only drawback is that Govt does nto support atheletes like other countries, like U.S. and China. All sports personnel who should be supported by the govt to train all year round. But the corrupt Govt is a road block!
Reading this, the only feeling what goes through is that our players should be given enough training to make them mentally strong to give their best in the most trying circumstances. In many cases, pressure playing in mind is more tough to handle than the physical fitness needed. I think India should get some lessons on this from the foreign countries
I don't think the archers had any help in their mental preparation at all. In this Olympics
Deepika is the only player among all the athletes that I have seen who was smiling broadly
after a bad performance.
Lot of expection on Deeika kumari might have kept in pressure.That was expected are for the game like this, she was the hope for 100 million people. We have learned they need good partice in the game stadium. All I would keep of the good work and keep focusing on next game and make it happen , these are not failures they are the lessons for the next olympics.Only the question remain can we make this lesson to win the next gold medal in next olympics ??.
I am glad to hear you had all facilities, also that all players have
tried their best. Competition like Olympics it will be hard to give
their best for players, also added hype wouldn't have helped them. But
this experience of failure could make them strong and they could bring
laurels to country in the coming years. Keep up the good work.
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