Jayanta Talukdar’s big Olympic dream has certainly received a jolt. But he is neither giving it up, nor is it all over for the ace archer. Though he was dropped from the Indian squad for the World Cup Archery Tournament (Stage III) at Antalaya in Turkey from May 28 to June 2, the archer can still make it to Beijing. “He can still qualify for the Summer Games provided he does well in the 44th World Outdoor Target Archery Championships at Leipzig in Germany during July 7-15,” said his coach Dharmender Tiwari speaking to The Indian Express on phone from Jamshedpur.Tiwari, apart from being the coach of the Indian team for the world meet along with Mun Baek Woon of Korea, is also the chief coach of the Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur where Jayanta trains. He said that Jayanta is not someone who is going to take this setback very seriously so as to effect his career. “He is too good an archer to be affected by such things,” said Tiwari and added: “On the contrary, this (dropping from the squad) could act as a boost and he knows how to stage a strong comeback. The Pune meet was his first in almost five months. Before the break, he was also complaining of some pain in his bow arm. It has healed completely now but he is a bit out of practice. All Jayanta needs now is more and more practice and he will be back where he belongs.” And his target practice has already started with an eye on the 3rd National Ranking Archery Tournament scheduled to be held at Bangalore during June 19 and 24 which will also be the selection trials for the World Championships in Germany. “He will come back. And we all have pretty high hopes regarding his qualification for the Olympics,” added the coach. And how does Tiwari weigh India’s chances in Turkey without the numero uno! “We have picked the best possible team but then it all depends on the weather and the wind on that given day,” Tiwari said. In fact, all the archers practised and competed in severe windy conditions at the Pune meet in order to get a feel of things to expect. But none could please the tough taskmaster. “It (the performance) was below par. With more practice in such conditions, I hope they will come good,” he added. Meanwhile, assistant secretary of the Archery Association of India (AAI) Gunjan Abrol said that there may be a slight change in the dates and venue of the 3rd national ranking meet scheduled to be held in Bangalore. “The new dates have not been decided yet but it will most probably be held in Delhi some time in the third week of June,” said Abrol. Selection trials at JamshedpurTrials are on at the Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur to select the junior and cadet teams for the Asian Grand Prix 2nd Round Archery Championships to be held at Chinese Taipei from June 14 to 20. Thiry two archers in all (four each in recurve and compound events for boys and girls in both categories) will be selected after the five-day trials which will be over on May 18.
