Archery
Indian archers left in the lurch before Olympic qualifier trials
The men's and women's recurve team selection trials for the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers are scheduled to be held at the Army Sports Institute (ASI) Pune from January 4 to 6. However, India's top recurve archers have been left to fend for themselves as they have been told to arrange for their own boarding and lodging in Pune, according to a report in the Times of India.
A five-member transitory committee, consisting of members from the sports ministry, Sports Authority of India (SAI), Indian Olympic Association(IOA) and the two suspended factions of the Archery Association of India (AAI), appointed by the Delhi High Court, had directed the three-day trials for the team selection.
Olympians like Deepika Kumari, Bombayla Devi and Atanu Das will be taking part in the trials amongst several other archers. As per the report, the archers are not too pleased with the fact that the government is bearing all costs for the selection committee while they themselves are having trouble in finding an accommodation close to the venue. An archer was quoted by TOI saying:
Imagine you have a trial coming up for the Olympic qualifier, but are told to arrange for your own boarding and lodging rather than focus on training. As per the norms, it’s the duty of the federation (in this case the SAI since the AAI is suspended) to arrange for boarding and lodging since it’s a trial connected to Olympic qualification. When a selection trial was conducted in Sonepat in August last year, the boarding and lodging was taken care of by SAI. So, what has happened this time?”
An ASI official, who deals with the residential wing, informed TOI that no booking order for stay of men’s recurve archers was received from the SAI till Friday.
One of the transitory committee members has apparently assured that accommodation will be provided to the participants after the first day of the trials, once the first elimination round is over. But later, he added that all the arrangements have been made, although the archers are yet to be notified.
