India’s para-archery team given bad news on coaching front ahead of Tokyo Paralympics

India’s five-member para archery squad, competing at the Tokyo Paralympic Games starting August 24, has been hit hard ahead of the Games. They have been given the news that two coaches will not be allowed for their Games in Tokyo.

Only one of the two coaches received Tokyo Paralympic Games accreditation to accompany the para archery team leaving Monday for Japan, said Pramod Chandurkar, secretary-general of the Archery Association of India (AAI).

“It is a big setback for the team. For the para team it’s important to have two coaches because one coach stands close to the archer at the time of competition, the second coach monitors the score and stays close to the target,” said Pramod.

According to Pramod, Kuldeep Kumar Vedwan will accompany the archery team.

"We also recommended Gaurav Sharma, who was overseeing the national coaching camp, but his name wasn’t included in the list by the sports ministry."

Instead of Gaurav’s name, sports ministry cleared the name of Satyadev Prasad, an employee of the Sports Authority of India (SAI). Satyadev, a former international archer wasn’t associated with the national coaching camp, said Pramod.

“We were surprised how Satyadev’s name was included in the list of 48 officials cleared by the sports ministry for the Tokyo Paralympic Games,” added Pramod.

Meanwhile Satyadev has decided to withdraw his name as the archery federation objected to his inclusion in the government list for the Tokyo Paralympics Games

Pramod explained the function of the two coaches. While one coach stays close to the archer during the competition, the other one stays close to the target. The task of the second coach is to ensure the score has been noted by the official correctly. The arrow, said Pramod, is then handed to a volunteer who gives the arrow back to the competitor. The process goes on until the match is over.

Athletes are unhappy with the decision of the Tokyo Paralympics comittee

Of the five members, archery team one is wheelchair bound while the other four will compete in standing positions. The athletes are also upset with the latest development.

“Some of the senior SAI officials are going with the team. They should have ensured that coaching staff should go as priority,” said one of the para archers in the national team.

Pramod said the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) had ensured that the name of the second archery coach would be included but has not happened

“The Tokyo Paralympic Games organising committee has refused to include fresh names for accreditation,” added Pramod.

A PCI official from Tokyo confirmed that additional accreditation is not possible at this moment.

“We tried but the Tokyo Paralympic Games organizing committee has refused,” said the PCI official from Tokyo.