With the Tokyo Olympics completed and cleaned up and the focus already shifting to the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Indian junior archers will be looking to make their mark at the World Youth Archery Championships to be held in Wroclaw, Poland, starting in martes.
The event, which was supposed to take place in Australia but moved to Poland due to the pandemic, will feature up to 24 archers from the country, along with more than 500 archers from 57 other countries.
Speaking about preparing the team for the event, India coach Purnima Mahato said: “The players have been training a lot and everyone is expected to perform well.”
Although he doesn’t want to overwhelm the youngsters, Mahato has high hopes for the recurve men’s youth team of Parth Salunkhe, Aditya Choudhary and Dhiraj Bommadevara. Of the three, Parth and Aditya also made the cut for the World Archery Championships, to be held next month.
Another goalkeeper who will be conquered in both events is Komalika Bari from Jharkhand. He won gold in the cadet category when the event was held in Madrid in 2019 and is now participating in the junior category.
She also won two gold medals in the women’s team event at the Archery World Cup in Guatemala and then in Paris, but she didn’t make it to the Tokyo Olympics and that hurt her badly. All he wants now is to qualify for the Paris Olympics, which are only three years away.
“Winning the gold was great, but losing the Olympics was heartbreaking,” he said. “60% of my technique is good, but I will have to work the remaining 40%. Also, I have to make sure I don’t make the same mistakes again. ”
Archer Jharkhand is also working on his mental strength to be well prepared for the big events. “The psychologist gives me homework and I do it every day. So I try to implement them every time I’m competing, ”Bari said.
Although the Indian archers were expected to perform well in Tokyo, they were unable to bring in any medals with a disappointing show. The focus will now naturally shift to the youth, on how they will continue to do so long before the next Olympics.
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