Archers targeting four medals in Asian Games: coach

August 16, 2014 05:30 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 05:43 pm IST - Kolkata

(From left to right) Laxmi Rani Majhi, Deepika Kumari, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar, medal winners at the fourth stage of archery World Cup held in Wroclaw. File photo: Meeta Ahlawat

(From left to right) Laxmi Rani Majhi, Deepika Kumari, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar, medal winners at the fourth stage of archery World Cup held in Wroclaw. File photo: Meeta Ahlawat

With compound section set to make its debut at the Incheon Asian Games next month, India would be targeting at least four medals to better their Guangzhou haul.

According to India coach Dharmendra Tiwary, country’s archers including three-time World Cup Final siver medalist Deepika Kumari are peaking at the right time ahead of the September 19-October 4 quadrennial meet.

“It’s really a good thing our archers are slowly getting back to their old form. Deepika is shooting well so are the others including the men’s and women’s team”, he said.

“Compound archers are also winning,” Tiwary, of the Tata Academy who’s been given a contract till the Asian Games, told PTI referring to their five-medal haul in the World Cup Stage IV in Wroclaw last week”, Tiwary said.

“The men’s and women’s recurve teams should do well and with compound archers also doing well we should look to bag three to four medals,” he said from Delhi.

With a brilliant show from Deepika, the women’s recurve team won the gold medal while the men’s team lost to Mexico to settle for a silver medal.

“The men’s team lost narrowly (to Mexico) but Atanu Das, Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee have one month to improve.”

India also bagged a second silver in the compound mixed pair event while Deepika clinched two bronze medals in individual and mixed pair.

The Indian coach however said they would have a tough fight since all the Asian countries are bigwigs.

“From Korea, China to Chinese Taipei and Japan we should be ready for the challenge at all the stages. I would say Asian Games is the toughest after Olympics.”

The 16-member archery team is currently undergoing training at the Nehru Stadium in the capital ahead of their departure on August 23, a full month ahead of the schedule.

“It’s a good thing that we are going one month in advance. It will help acclimatise to the conditions which I don’t think will be much different from what we have in India.”

Tarundeep Rai had bagged India’s solitary silver while the men’s and women’s teams bagged a bronze each in the Asian Games, Guangzhou in 2010.

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