Archers set to return

The plight of the Visveswaraya Technological University team, who were denied participation in the All Indian Inter-University Archery Championships in Amritsar following a bungling of entry forms, expectedly came to its natural conclusion – a journey back home in disappointment.

While the nine archers, including four girls, saw it coming after the authorities from the Guru Nanak Dev University -- the hosts -- denied them entry over non-arrival of forms, the VTU were confident of resolving the crisis, hoping their team would be accommodated at the last instant.

However, with the five-day event having kick-started on Tuesday and the team in Amritsar failing to receive any communication, their hopes were expectedly doomed.

“It’s not a surprise that we have to be come back home without participating,” said one of the archers, expressing deep disappointment at the turn of events. “We had great hopes of doing well in this event and there are former medal winners in this team.

“Now, we have to return empty handed, not because of our fault but because of somebody else’s. We just have to accept our fate.”

The archer also revealed that plans have been made by the accompanying coach and manager to return home on Wednesday. “The coach has just told us that tickets to Delhi have been booked for Wednesday morning. The only problem is that tickets from Delhi to Bangalore is wait-listed. We just hope we get the tickets.”