Women's Archery selections to be held again

Women’s archery selection to be held again after a sudden announcement for a trial despite the team being confirmed for the Tokyo Olympic Qualifiers Asian Championships. After the announcement of re-trials in Pune and Rohtak on October 10-14, the country's elite archers like Deepika Kumari, Atanu Das, Tarundeep Roy and other archers in the team have requested Sports Minister Kiran Rijiju and Sports Authority of India (SAI) to cancel them as this period could be a valuable preparation time for such a prestigious tournament.

The decision to have another trial has divided the archery camp into two. The atmosphere in the team seems to be palpable as there is no communication between the players who are selected and those who are seeking to be selected.

SAI had conducted the trials on August 7 to 11. It was informed that the A team will play the Asian championships and the B team will play the Asia Cup. Preparations had already begun for the selected archers. Tarundeep, Dheeraj, Atul Verma, Atanu Das had been selected for men and Deepika Kumari, Ankita, Simranjit and Sangeeta were selected to represent the women.

Two-time Asian Games medalist Tarundeep Rai says that he has established a good rapport with the rest of the team. Now after going halfway, teaming again is not good for the championship. This will definitely affect performance. Former IAS KS Kang, President of Punjab Archery and C Satyanarayana, Secretary-General of Andhra Pradesh Archery have said via Email that this will prove terminal for the young archers already selected in the team.

Recurve trials (10th and 11th October) will be held in Pune while compound trials (13th and 14th October) have been kept in Rohtak.

With less than a year to go for the Olympics, the Indian women’s team is yet to book a quota place for Tokyo 2020, while the men have secured qualification at the World Championships in the Netherlands in June.