Bull’s eye for Beijing

Bull’s eye for Beijing

Dark clouds are hovering overhead and the rain is coming down in torrents over the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Eastern Centre in Kolkata's Salt Lake neighbourhood. These are hardly conditions for men and women to be hanging around, getting soaked and shooting arrows in the open.

Yet, regardless of the frowning weather, the Indian Olympic archery team continues to fire streamlined missiles at their targets, watched by a stern-faced Korean, who, it is clear, is their coach, confidant and slave driver.

With time counting down to the Olympic gamers in Beijing at what seems like rapid speed, the weather has failed to halt the team's practice session. Unlike the sky, the archers' mission is very clear. It has to be bull's eye in Beijing.

Archery Association of India (AAI) general secretary Paresh Mukherjee is also clear in his mind. He thinks of India's Olympic results as "a national shame". He sighs, "Such a big population and no champions." Then he throws down the gauntlet to the archers around him.

"This time," he says, "the archery team wants to change that. They will go to the Olympics, to compete, not to participate." Confident words from a man who has experienced all the slings and arrows that have come the way of Indian archery.

Four years ago, India's largest ever team left for the Athens Olympics at a time when archery's profile was the highest it's ever been in India.

Champia’s performance has been very consistent
Champia’s performance has been very consistent
In the 2003 World Archery Championships in New York, the Indian men's recurve team had finished fourth (out of a field of 37 nations) and the women team sixth (out of 32 nations). India was only one of the three teams to have both men and women qualifying for the 2004 Olympics.

In the wake of such a heady run-up, results were mixed. Satyadev Prasad reached the quarter-finals, one round short of having a shot at a medal, while Reena Kumari finished among the top 16. There were no medals from the team, but these are still India's best-ever Olympic performances.

For Beijing, the Indian archery squad is made up of rookies with only one Olympic veteran. Unlike the 3-3 split in Athens, this time there are three women and one man heading east for their biggest test.

The only experienced archer is Dola Banerjee, 28, who had an excellent run in 2007, winning the World Cup Grand Finals in Dubai. Banerjee had also won the fourth stage of the World Cup circuit in Dover in England to qualify for the Dubai finals as one of only four elite archers.

Lee Wang Woo, team coach
Lee Wang Woo, team coach
In Beijing, Banerjee will shoot alongside Laishram Bombayla Devi, 23, and 17-year-old Vardeneni Pranitha in the team event. The two rookies came through tough qualifying rounds, which saw Olympian Reena Kumari and the promising Chakravalu Soru fall by the wayside.

Similarly, in the men's category, illustrious archers like Tarundeep Rai, Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee failed to qualify, leaving Mangal Singh Champia, a gifted 24-year-old from a Jharkhand village, as the only Indian man standing in Beijing.

At Salt Lake, the Korean, called Lee Wang Woo, who has groomed eight Olympic gold medallists, says Champia is India's best bet. It is a curious combination: the crack Korean coach and his eager-to-absorb-all trainees, communicating and sharing through an interpreter.

Woo says, "They are all good archers. It'll be very challenging at the Olympics. If Champia can withstand that he has a great chance of winning a medal."

Woo's faith is a result of the Jharkhand archer's steady performances. A bronze medal at the 2006 Doha Asian Games was followed by a bronze at the cut-throat 2007 Asian Championships which helped him win qualification for Beijing. He also played a key role in the Indian men's team that snatched Asian gold from Malaysia.

Both Mukherjee and Woo believe that Champia is now at his peak. The rustic archer could hardly have imagined that the rudimentary bow-and-arrow of his boyhood would turn into the sophisticated piece of equipment that today rests in his hands like a metal feather.

Bombayla
Bombayla
From Ichakuti village to Beijing is a great leap-of faith and of dream-but the medal, Champia knows, is only as far away as that elusive target he must nail.

In contrast to Champia's progress, Dola, somehow, has not been able to live up to her own performance after the 2007 World Cup Final win. By her own admission, she is not shooting as well as she would have wanted to.

"I need to improve before the Olympics," the veteran says, her eyes burning. She found herself at the centre of a selection row when Athens Olympian Reena Kumari squarely accused the AAI of favouring Dola after she was omitted from the Beijing squad.

Dola's teammates have had quieter Olympic preludes. Bombayla is the silent workhorse of the team. Consistent performances in the past one year have earned her the Olympic ticket.