Young archers hit the mark under Olympian’s tutelage

“Rahul (Banerjee) bhaiyya came up to me and said I shouldn’t really worry. I should just do what I had practised and treat this as another training session,” he says. Banerjee’s advice seemed to have worked as the Indian men’s recurve team clinched bronze.

The trio narrowly missed the silver,but rallied to beat a strong Russian team 217-201 in the bronze medal play-off.

Banerjee,the individual gold medallist in the 2010 Commonwealth Games was all praise for his two young teammates. “They (Das and Swansi) have shot really well. It was a tough tournament but they stuck to the plan and the scores are proof enough of their abilities,” he said.

The 26-year-old who represented India during the London Olympics also said that he is enjoying the role of a mentor.

“I don’t normally give a lot of advice to these youngsters. I just try and pass on some useful tips. My aim is to help these guys hold their own under different conditions. Also when I am the senior member of the side,I have to be doubly sure of what tips I am passing along and that means I have to spend some time studying the finer points of archery myself,” he added.

The 20-year-old Das is already a veteran of several international tournaments and has a silver medal in the 2012 World Championship to his name but he said that shooting with someone as experienced as Banerjee is always helpful. “Shooting with Rahul bhaiyya is a comfortable experience. He doesn’t complicate things. He just tells you how to handle things like changing wind conditions and bow control in simple terms and that is helpful,” he quips.

However,the happiest of the lot is Swansi as he returned from his first international tournament with a medal in his kitty. The son of a tribal farmer,the lad was picked up by the Tata Archery Academy a couple of years ago.

“The experience was great and now I am hoping to continue to shoot well and get into the Indian team on a more regular basis,” he added.