‘Dark horse’ tag suits six archers perfectly

With the country’s focus on some of the more high-profile Olympians, the six members of the archery contingent — that left for Ath...

With the country’s focus on some of the more high-profile Olympians, the six members of the archery contingent — that left for Athens Friday night — didn’t seem to mind that not many are looking at them for an Olympic medal.

‘‘We want to turn all that upside down and prove we are also worthy of some attention,’’ said Dola Banerjee and her teammates Reena Kumari and Sumangla during a send-off function organised by the Archery Association of India (AAI) here today. ‘‘In fact, it is this dark horse tag that will help us achieve the impossible at Athens,’’ said Tarundeep Rai and Satyadev Prasad.

Tarundeep might have hit the nail on its head. Because no one gave India a chance when they went to New York for the World Archery Championship in 2003 July. Surpassing even their own expectations, the archers not only qualified for Athens, but the men actually made the semi-finals, a never-before feat. The women, on their part, did equally well, qualifying from among 500-odd archers from 80 nations. Incidentally, only Korea and Ukraine have qualified in both the sections.

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A lot of credit for that must go to the AAI, which devised the National Ranking Circuit tournament recently, to prepare the archers for Athens. The programme has paid rich dividends as the task of qualification was taken care of by the end of the first phase. Apart from the money that was routinely paid to the winners, what also helped was the import of the finest equipment, courtesy the Sports Authority of India.

The archers also gave credit to Russian Ivan Ivanov Lotov and Chinese Chea Hog Gi — the two foreign coaches — and said the schedule prepared by them resulted in medals. Tarundeep won gold at Asian GP in Bangkok.

Does that mean our chances at Athens are bright? ‘‘Why not, the men’s team is among the top four. And the women among the top six. You can’t write them off,’’ say the coaches.