Women’s recurve team off to Paris, set to get head start before qualifiers 

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: India’s  women recurve archers were due to depart for Paris on Saturday ahead of a ten-day quarantine upon arrival ahead of the Final Olympic Qualification Event. This move is aimed at giving the archers time to get acclimatised to the conditions.The women’s team of Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat, Komalika Bari and Madhu Vedwan (reserve) will be accompanied by two coaches and support staff. The group were due to leave together from New Delhi early on Saturday. AAI have also managed to get a training club for the archers where they will be able to practice during the quarantine period.

“We were in constant contact with the organisers and apprised them of the difficulty our archers would be facing if they were to spend the entire isolation period cooped up inside their hotel rooms. Thankfully, they agreed to our requests and now our archers will get a training venue during the day,” a senior official informed.

The club is around 8-10 kilometres from the hotel and a bus will ferry the archers on a daily basis. Something the archers were very pleased with. The mood in the camp was bullish, with a senior archer commenting how positive they were of acquiring the quota. The top three teams will be getting the quota.

In a bid to avoid the episode which happened prior to the World Cup Stage I, the recurve men’s team and both compound teams will be travelling together on June 9. The World Cup Stage III begins on June 21 which will allow all the archers to get some healthy practice prior to the competition.

“We wanted to avoid any complications with the women’s team which is our priority as an Olympic team quota is up for grabs. So it was decided that we will send the rest of the teams on a separate flight,” the official added.This will be the first competition for compound archers after over a year. The men’s team of Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav have already secured their Olympic spots.