Indian team could have won gold: Tarundeep

Tarundeep Rai, who was part of the Indian team that won the silver medal in the Archery World Cup Stage I in Croatia, said the team could have won the ultimate prize.

Rai said the Indian team could have done better and won the gold but lost by a slim 2-point margin to USA.

"The big challenge for us was to defeat the champions Korea in the competition, who were in our pool. We achieved the target by defeating Korea in the semi finals but somehow lost to the USA just by two points," the Arjuna awardee said.

Rai, who is from Sikkim, said he is preparing for the upcoming World Championships as well as qualifying round for Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Torino, Italy in the first week of July later this.

He is among the eight shortlisted for the team from among 200 archers. This camp has been underway for two years and only three will be finally selected to represent the country in the World Championship.

He mentioned that to get selected in the top-eight among 200 archers was in itself a great achievement for him, but his target was to qualify for the 2012 Olympics.

"I am confident and quite satisfied with the training sessions and the recent achievements in international competitions and we need to work harder by aiming to win teams like Korea and the US," he said.

He was in Gangtok on a short break and will join the training session at the national camp underway at Salt Lake, Kolkata.