Firing blanks at Olympics

Bengaluru: Last weekend in Shanghai, Indian archery witnessed something special. The trio of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav dished out a superlative show to defeat powerhouse South Korea, landing India’s first recurve gold in 14 years at the Archery World Cup. More than the gold it was the manner in which they achieved it that was more heartening, stunning the overwhelming favourites without dropping a set. 

This was a cherry on the cake for the Indians at Stage 1, a crucial competition on the Road to the Paris Olympics.

Just a day earlier, the reigning Asian Games champion Jyothi Surekha Vennam had led a complete Indian dominance in the compound events with a hat-trick of golds — individual, women’s team and mixed team — as the country nailed five medals in the non-Olympic discipline. Jyothi, the 27-year-old from Vijayawada, replicated what she did in Hangzhou Games last year to extend her prowess at the global stage also. Overall, it was a phenomenal outing for the Indian archers as they returned home to a rousing reception with eight medals — 5 golds, 2 silvers and a bronze.

While this has been one of the most successful World Cups for the Indians, they’ve generally performed well at the global event and an equally tough one — the Asian Games. At the continental bash where heavyweights Korea constantly field their best sides, the Indians have managed to win 19 medals with six gold, as many silvers and seven bronze medals. In fact, since the 2006 Doha Games, archers have constantly stood on the podium. 

The Indian archers have been a force to reckon with at the World Cups — the four stages and the final — too. Following the conclusion of the Shanghai event, the Indians have won 40 golds, 44 silvers and 43 bronzes to be ranked constantly amongst the elite. But this is where the story follows a strange pattern, something that has perplexed the archer fraternity. For all the glory at the Asian Games and World Cups, the Indians archers are yet to win a single medal at the Olympics.

The script generally is this: they hit their peak on the road to the Olympics with some of them even attaining World No. 1 rankings, gain a lot of media attention as medal hopes but then bungle big time on the biggest stage. It’s a mystery because at the Asian Games they compete against the same Koreans while at the World Cups, they battle it out against powers from Europe too. So, why is it that they succeed in these two but flop at the Olympics where the standard of competition is more or less the same?

“Pressure, heavy expectations and the aura of the Olympics all form a heady cocktail that ends up knocking them out,” Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, Indian archery’s High Performance Director, told DHoS. “What happens is on the road to every Olympics, the Indian archers string in good performances at the preceding Asian Games and the World Cups. So before the Olympics, naturally a massive hype is built by the media saying archers could win a medal. There’s a lot of build-up. The media, government and fans end up expecting a medal.

“Archers carry these expectations, it just becomes too burdensome and they collapse under the weight of expectations. At the last Olympics in Tokyo, I noticed the heart rate go up exponentially for the archers. And when the heart rate spikes up drastically, it’s hard to maintain your focus. In a sport like archery where even millimetres count, one has to be stable, emotionally and physically. One can’t be anxious while shooting. This is what has been happening for all these years and I’m hoping to correct it in Paris.”

Arjuna award winner Rahul Banerjee, who competed in the 2012 London Olympics where he finished 17th in the individual competition and 9th in team events, echoed Sanjeeva’s views. 

“Yes, you can say we have not been able to handle the pressure in the biggest event but sometimes things haven’t gone our way too. It’s a combination of many things. Firstly, a vast majority of our success on the road to the Olympics has come from compound which is not an Olympic discipline. Equating compound success to recurve is wrong and expecting the latter to deliver the same is unfair. 

“In recurve you shoot through your fingers unlike the trigger in compound, and if you allow pressure to get to you, a slight movement will result in a 10 becoming an eight. Recurve is completely human while in the compound you get a good amount of mechanical support. I’m not saying compound is easy but recurve is tougher which is why many aspiring archers choose the former.  

“Having said that, we’ve been a tad unfortunate too at the Olympics. Either an archer has fallen sick during the ranking rounds where we shoot low and end up getting a tougher opponent in the main event or the conditions on the day end up being a bit brutal. Yes, I do agree as athletes we need to counter it but sometimes you need an element of luck at the Olympics which hasn’t happened for us.”

Dronacharya award winner Sanjeeva, who pioneered compound archery in the country around two decades ago, is now leaving no stone unturned in recurve section for the Paris Games. Having figured out recurve archers’ inability to handle pressure and heavy expectations at the Olympics, he and his team have gone about building infrastructure at Sonepat that replicates Paris. Apart from setting up the same Field of Play that archers would find in Paris, Sanjeeva has roped in top psychologists, neuroscientists and fitness experts to ensure archers receive the best kind of preparation.

“One of the cliches in sport is practice makes a man perfect. So we have taken practice to a whole different level this time. At Sonepat, the archers have been training in a set-up that is identical to Paris. The approach has also been extremely scientific in terms of creating match simulations, measuring heart rate, constant discussions with psychologists, fitness experts etc. To succeed at the highest level, an athlete has to be mentally and physically strong. The two go hand in hand. Even if you are weak in one, it could spell doom,” said Sanjeeva.

“The holistic approach had its results in Shanghai where recurve archers beat South Korea. The last time we won a recurve gold at the World Cup was more than a decade ago. They handled the pressure exceptionally well and this will give them plenty of confidence in Paris.

“We will be going to Paris a fortnight in advance to help acclimatise to the conditions better. Also, I’m ensuring the archers stay disconnected from the outside hype.”

So far only Bommadevara has punched his ticket to Paris. He and his recurve team-mates will be looking to button down the team quota in the final qualifying event at the World Cup Stage 2 event in Antalya, Turkey from June 18-23. If they can achieve that, they’ll be hoping to change the script in Paris. Else, the onus will be on Bommadevara alone.