The Indian archery team would like to be in the news for right reasons after controversial two weeks as they target Rio Olympics quota berths in the eight-day World Championships beginning here tomorrow.
The Archery Association of India (AAI) has barred India's foreign coach Lim Chae Woong, Jiwanjot and another coach Surinder from accompanying teams as a fallout of university compound team's missing bronze medal berth at the World University Games at Gwangju in South Korea.
Later the Association of Indian Universities cracked the whip on the errant trio of Gurwinder Singh, Kanwalpreet Singh and Aman as the sport earned some disrepute.
Amid the pall of gloom, six Indian recurve archers who included experienced trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee and Mangal Singh Champia would look to give India some reason to rejoice. All three are Olympians.
Even as the team is together for the first time since 2010, their experience would matter the most as the duo of Rahul and Jayanta, who were part of London 2012, will look to complement Champia, who was the only member in the Beijing-bound 2008 contingent.
The women's team will bank on former world number one and Olympian Deepika Kumari as it remains to be seen how the Ranchi girl performs as her turn of shooting would be last in the team after the duo of Laxmi Rani Majhi and Rimil Buriuly.
But women's team coach Purnima Mahto is confident of winning a team berth.
"Our focus is to win a team berth... Deepika is in good form now after winning a bronze in World Cup Stage-II at Antalya this year. I think she has matured a lot and will fare better this time," Mahto said.
India need to figure among top 16 teams after two rounds of 70m-target shooting.
In the elimination round, they have to win at least one match to book a team berth. In individual category, one Indian can win Rio berth if he or she finishes among top 32.
However World Championship is not the only qualification event as the archers will have a second chance at the Asian Archery Championship which will be held in Bangkok in November.
The tournament has a record 623 participants from 96 countries vying for top honours in four competitive disciplines.
THE Squad
Recurve: Men's: Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia, Jayanta Talukdar; Women's: Deepika Kumari, Laxmi Rani Majhi, Rimil Buriuly.
Compound: Men's: Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan, Kawalpreet Singh; Women's: Purvasha Shende, V Jyothi Surekha, P Lily Chanu.
