We were confident of quotas: National archery coach Limba Ram
Published: Thursday, Jul 7, 2011, 8:00 IST
By Tushar Dutt | Place: Pune | Agency: DNA
ndian recurve women’s team confirmed country’s participation in the London Games by defeating France 216-212 at the World Archery Championship at Turin, Italy, on Wednesday.
The trio of Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro earned three Olympic quota places by defeating France in the team event round. But the men’s team comprising Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar were unfortunate to miss the quota place after going down by one point (215-216) difference to China.
When DNA contacted national coach Limba Ram after the matches, he said performances by both the teams were up to the mark. “I am happy with both the teams’ performance. The girls won Olympic quota for the country, which is a great thing, but at the same time, I would say that even the boys played well. They were a bit unfortunate to lose by only one point, but that won’t take the credit of shooting well, away from them,” said the three-time Olympian.
When asked whether he expected the girls to win quotas for the country, Limba said, “We were expecting both the teams to do well. But honestly speaking, we were expecting the men’s team to qualify first, as they have been doing very good since last few months. But we were confident of the quotas even before they left for the championship,” he said.
The coach feels it is the combination of the team, which helped the girls win the quotas. “I feel this was the right team, as all of them — Deepika, Bombayla and Swuro — are good archers. Most importantly, they all get along well, so this makes them an ideal team to work with,” he said. He added that presence of Deepika is also a big factor. “I feel Deepika is the X-factor of the team. She is a team player and along with improving her own performance, she also motivates others to do equally well. Her performance in the past two years speaks volumes,” he said.
Talking about the training they had before the championship, he said, “We had a good training before the team left for Italy. Apart from normal shooting practice, we also motivated them to win Olympic quota for the country, which the girls rightly did.”
According to him, the sport is walking on the right path and the country now stands a chance to do well at the London Games.
