Archery World Cup: First lot of archers to leave for Florida tonight

A depleted 14-member Indian archery contingent is scheduled to depart for Florida Archery World Cup Stage 1 on Saturday, while the nine others are still awaiting visa clearance.

The first lot of archers to leave for the season opener include some big names, likes of Deepika Kumari, Atanu Das, Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam.

The Bridge had on April 2 reported that six archers and three support staff including World champion Aditi Gopichand Swami (compound women), Olympian Dhiraj Bommadevara (recurve men), among others are still waiting to hear from the US embassy.

Race against time

The remaining archers will be heading to the US embassy on Monday for their biometrics, hoping to get same-day visas. Their troubles aren’t over yet.

If they do manage to get the visas, and hop on the next flight to Florida, the archers will still be racing against time. For they have only three hours at hand to reach the venue and make the qualification round.

If the archers get next-day clearance, India will not field a compound women's team as three women archers await their visas, and for a team event, you need Individual scores of three archers.  

Archery Association of India’s (AAI) Gunjan Abrol explains the logistics to The Bridge.

“We only have one flight option that reaches Florida at 11 am on April 8. The qualification round for the compound, begins at 2 pm the same day. We are not even looking at jet lag or fatigue. We aim to ensure our archers participate,” AAI’s Abrol said.

“The flight is totally packed if they manage to travel on the same flight, and the archers land at 11. If things go well and there are no delays at the airport or on the way to the venue, they can still manage to reach by 1:30-2 pm,” he added.

“We will request the World Archery to postpone the event by an hour, but I doubt they will agree,” he concluded.

We prepare ourselves for all types of challenges: Dhiraj 

Olympian Dhiraj Bommadevara, who is the only recurve men archer to be left behind, is optmistic of good show despite all odds.

“We prepare ourselves for all challenges, all types of situations. We will try to make it even if we get a visa on April 7 since the recurve event starts on April 9. We will have 24 hours at hand. It will be a situation of practice and match. This is the first world-level tournament after the Paris Olympics and it is in the US, host to the 2028 Olympics. This will give us the best exposure. We will get to test all upgrades that have happened technically and mentally; we get to check all that. Tournaments like these add up to the Olympics, making it all the more important,” Dhiraj said.

The archers awaiting visa include World champion Aditi Gopichand Swami (compound women), Olympian Dhiraj Bommadevara (recurve men), Uday Kamboj (compound men), Anshika Kumari (recurve women), Madhura Dhamangaonkar (compound women), Chikitha Taniparthi (compound women), Sonam Tshering Bhutia, Jiwanjot Singh Teja and Snober Rupal.

Archery’s premier annual international circuit will have four stages in Central Florida (USA), Shanghai (China), Antalya (Türkiye), and Madrid (Spain) from April to July before the grand final in Nanjing (China) in October.