Opportunities
Creating history – India has never won an Olympic medal in Archery and had their best chance in London. With their best archer Deepika 4 years elder, this could turn out to be a defining moment in Indian sport. We all saw how Leander Paes’ bronze medal in Atlanta 1996 turned tennis into one of the mainstream sports and Saina Nehwal’s exploits in London lifted Indian badminton to new heights. The country’s archery team can etch their name in sporting history and make Rio into a watershed moment for the sport in India.
Dark horses – India enter this edition’s archery events as the dark horses. After Korea, who are likely to rule the roost in most categories, it is the archers from Italy, Chinese Taipei, USA, France and Belgium who have been touted as the next best hopefuls for the Olympic medal. Being in the limelight in London turned out to be the undoing of the Indian team and they’ll be glad they can go about doing their work under the radar. The expectations on them are considerably less time around and this could work in favour of the Indian archers.
