Rio Olympics: Indian Archers Eye Redemption After London Debacle

Blown away quite literally the last time around, Indian archers will be looking to make amends for the flop-show in London when they take aim in the 2016 Rio Olympic Games on Friday.

Football and archery are the sports which kickstart even before the official opening ceremony of the Games.

On Friday, the four-member Indian team will step into Rio's landmark Sambadrome Marques de Sapucai, with an aim to break the jinx and prove the naysayers wrong.

An Olympic medal at the highest level has eluded Indian archers, who have achieved almost every other feat, including winning a bronze at the youth level of the Summer Games, courtesy Atul Verma in Nanjing, China 2014.

They have participated in the Olympic Games since the sport was introduced in Seoul (1988) and, barring Sydney (2000) when they failed to qualify, they have competed in six editions with their best finish being the quarterfinals -- the women's team in Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008).

In the individual category, Satyadev Prasad pulled off the best finish among Indians by advancing to the pre-quarters 12 years ago.

Since then, the archery landscape has changed, thanks to the individual brilliance of Deepika Kumari, who at a young age of 15 burst into limelight by becoming the cadet world champion in Ogden (2009) competing in a field of under-18 age group.

Two years later, the Ranchi girl showed that she has it in her to go a long way by becoming the junior (Under-21) world champion in Legnica, Poland.

At last count, she had more than 10 gold medals at the world level including winning the team and individual finals at the Commonwealth Games, New Delhi (2010) when she stunned five-time Olympian and bronze-medallist Alison Williamson of Great Britain.

By the 2012 Olympics, she had become world No. 1, along with her team, and as expected the hopes from her skyrocketed.

But all the hype fizzled out in a few seconds when Deepika lost to Amy Oliver of Great Britain, while the team -- which also had Bombayla Devi Laishram and Chekrovolu Swuro -- went down to Denmark, both in first rounds at London.

The blame was put on the cold weather, viral fever and Olympic pressure-factor for an inexperienced India team with Deepika in her maiden Olympics.

History Beckoning

It was a fresh start for the archers since the London debacle as their rankings dropped and Deepika battled inconsistent form, which forced her out of the team for some time in 2015.

But she peaked at the right time to help the women's team clinch a quota berth in World Championship last year followed by an individual qualification in the women's section.

The women's team is now ranked fourth, while Deepika has slipped out of top-10. But the team has what it takes to challenge the invincible Koreans, who are eyeing their eighth successive gold.

London Olympics silver-medallist Aida Roman, who defeated Deepika in the World Cup Final two years ago, may once again stand in her way in the individual section.

No Indian has gone beyond the pre-quarters and it will be historic if any of them manage to go past that stage.

Deepika will have the experienced Bombayla Devi, who is making her third successive Olympic appearance, to fall back on. Laxmirani Majhi, on the other hand, will be competing in her maiden Olympics.

Daughter of a coal-mine worker of 'santhal' tribe, Laxmirani did not know about Olympics before taking up archery.

Making her third successive Olympic appearance, Bombayla, 31, is the senior-most member of the Indian squad and keeps a low profile.

She has not looked back after winning the team gold in the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

In the men's section, Atanu Das is the lone ranger for India. The 24-year-old's road to Rio was full of surprises as he first edged past former Olympian duo of Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee in the trials to join Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar for the Olympic Qualification meet in World Cup Stage III in Antalya in June.

The men's trio, however, failed to qualify for the Olympics for the first time since 2000 and Champia, who had earned the individual quota, was favourite to head to Rio.

But Das had impressed in Antalya with a silver in mixed pair with Deepika and narrowly missed his maiden World Cup individual bronze but not before scaring two-time World champion Kim Woo-jin.

Buoyed by his World Cup show that earned him a bonus point, Das went on to defeat Champia and Talukdar in the trial to pick the individual men's slot for Rio.

It will really be a milestone for him if he betters Satyadev Prasad's pre-quarterfinal finish of Athens 2004.

The ones to watch out for will be the heavyweights Koreans, the USA, Mexico and Italy, while China and Japan would be the dark-horses.

Having landed here more than a fortnight ago, Indian team are 'feeling at home' and coach Dharmendra Tiwari is looking forward to some historic celebration at the iconic venue.

"Hopefully it's us who will celebrate on the samba streets of Brazil," Tiwari said.

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