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Archery camp may commence in September
During the 2019 Olympic qualifying cycle, the men’s recurve team bagged a quota place by winning silver at the World Championships in the Netherlands, while India also won an individual quota in the women’s category at the Asian Championships.
The Archery Association of India (AAI) will tentatively start preparations for the postponed Tokyo Olympics from September. “There is logistic problem of organising travel arrangements for archers from home to the camp venue. As the pandemic is spiking, we aren’t sure whether travel will be safe or not at this time. We plan to wait for some more time,” said Pramod Chandurkar, the AAI secretary.
During the 2019 Olympic qualifying cycle, the men’s recurve team bagged a quota place by winning silver at the World Championships in the Netherlands, while India also won an individual quota in the women’s category at the Asian Championships at Bangkok in November. The 2020 qualifying round got cancelled due to the pandemic.
The Sports Authority of India had recently announced a SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for core group athletes struck in SAI campuses. Accommodation, says Chandurkar, could be another issue when the national camp commences. “Earlier it was on a twin-sharing basis but now it will be single room for each athlete,” he says.
The core group of archers was training in Pune before the camp was called off in March due to the nationwide lockdown.
In its revamped Annual Competition and Training Calendar (ACTC), to be submitted to the SAI next week, AAI doesn’t have any plans for international exposure. “Since the Olympics is next year, the main focus will be on domestic events as we have to select the core group of athletes for the Olympics as the quota is for the country and not an athlete,” he added.
The federation also plans to shift the Olympic preparation camp in recurve from Pune to Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. The compound archery camp will be at Sonepat, Haryana.
