Early Paris start for recurve archery team?

NEW DELHI:  With the Indian archery team set to miss out on the World Cup Stage II in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Archery Association of India (AAI) is trying to give the recurve archers the best possible chance of booking a women’s team Olympic quota as well as ideal preparations ahead of Tokyo.

The federation is now fully focussed on the World Cup Stage III (June 21-27) and the final Olympic team qualification event in Paris. They are in talks with World Archery as well as the French federation in order to get a club where the archers can practice during their quarantine period.

France currently has made it mandatory for people coming from India to quarantine for 10 days. And AAI plans to send the team 20 days in advance so that the team can acclimatize to conditions there in order to give the women’s team the best possible chance at securing team quota.

“We are in constant touch with the embassy and the federation as well as the world body so that we can get a club allocated to us. We plan to go well in advance so that our archers can get used to the weather and can get some much needed practice before the tournament.

We are hopeful that the women’s team can get the job done there. The practice will also be beneficial for the men as they are in good form and it will help them continue in the same vein prior to the Olympics,” a senior AAI official said. The confirmation is expected in a couple of days or so.

With regards to compound team, the A team will be going for the Paris stage but it has not been decided whether they will be sent in advance. The primary reasoning being that Olympics is more important as the trio of Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat and Komalika Bari are in the hunt for a team quota. The Switzerland World Cup news came as a big blow to India’s plans after Swiss Embassy informed short-term visas were not being issued to Indians.