Because in India the mythological legends lend qualities such as dour determination and single-minded focus to archery,it can be a tad difficult to believe that fans from Asian powerhouse Korea tend to watch the sport with a cheery song on their lips and clappers to create one big happy din when they arrive for competition. It helps,of course,that Korean archers tend to win more than most. Still,when India played Korea in the semifinals of the mens team event at the Aoti archery range here,supporters of the No. 1 Korean contingent sat in the stands (resembling football galleries),complete with team-songs and Asias version of the scarves: the inflatable,noisy clappers. Such is the craze for this medal-hunting sport in Korea that a dozen photographers equipped with some of the most advanced camera-equipment shoot images of the Koreans merely taking stance and readying to release the bow-strings before the arrow zips off to the target in swooshing motion. With sound-effects that seemed to be borrowed from the televised Japanese manga series Shin Chan,the giant screen scorecard even declared Fantastic and Wonderful in colourful animated characters. Hooi Kan,a supporter who came down to watch the team event from nearby Shenzen,said that the archery gold is considered first amongst equals back home. While the Indians betrayed nerves when facing the unerring Koreans and could never make up the lead going down to the eventual gold medalists the team-trio of Mangal Singh Champia,Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee returned a while later to fight off Chinese Taipei and win the bronze 220-216 and match their Doha performance. We had to at least match Doha here,and when under pressure I only decided to focus on shooting my very best, Champia said,after his perfect 10 put immense pressure on the Taipei archers who shot poor 7,9 and 8 in their final series and could only garner 24,after India had recorded 8,10 and 9 to set their opponents a target of 29 to win. Incidentally,Taipei had shot a perfect 30,with all their three archers striking 10s just two series prior to the final one,but the target got too much for their comfort. We benefited from shooting first,because the pressure fell on them when we had 27 in our last go, Champia said. The Korean supporters though went home happy out-screaming the locals as they beat China 222-218,their archers not the least distracted by their jolly cheers.
