Archery
Innovative training after Rio Olympics have bolstered Indian archery believes Atanu Das
The top ranked men’s recurve archer from India, Atanu Das stressed that the improvement in Indian archery is due to improved facilities since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Atanu Das (Source: World Archery)
The Indian archers had endured a disappointing run at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. All the top 3 archers in contention – Atanu Das, Deepika Kumari and Bombayla Devi finished a disappointing ninth in their individual events.
Five years down the lane, a lot has changed. A lot of new archers have emerged and have showcased some consistent performances. If the recently concluded Archery World Cup Stage 1 in Guatemala is anything to go by, the Indian archers would surely enter the Tokyo Olympics as medal contenders.
So far a total of four Indian archers – Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai, Praveen Jadhav, and Deepika Kumari have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. This number is expected to go up when the Women's Recurve Team books their slot at the Tokyo Games during the Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Paris.
The top-ranked men's recurve archer from India, Atanu Das stressed that the improvement in Indian archery is due to improved facilities since the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
The 29-year-old stated that they are using various new training techniques like night training, training in rains, and shooting from elevated platforms to prepare for the Olympics.
"Earlier we never used to try these training methods. But now we're getting a lot more facilities since the Rio Olympics in 2016. At Rio 2016, we were given a lot of facilities, but at the last minute. I had said then also that if we get facilities throughout the Olympics cycle, then it'll be a lot more beneficial. The result will be different," Das was quoted as saying by Firstpost.
