Systemic issues hurting Tokyo preparations: Rai

Tarundeep Rai speaks with the benefit of hindsight. Having competed in two Olympic Games, the 35-year-old knows too well what it takes to perform at the highest level.

And when Rai says India doesn’t even have a proper roadmap for its archers with less than 400 days to go for the quadrennial games, he’s simply delivering an ominous warning. “We are already very late. The preparations (for Tokyo) should have started in 2015. But here we are still waiting for the roadmap for the Games,” says Rai, who recently achieved Olympic qualification in recurve, along with Atanu Das and Pravin Jadhav, at the World Championships in ’s-Hertogenbosch (Netherlands), finishing second.

It was déjà vu 14 years later for Rai in ’s-Hertogenbosch. As a 20-year-old, Rai had won silver at the World Championships in Madrid in 2005 alongside Jayanta Talukdar, Gautam Singh and Robin Handsa. And the archer from Namchi district in southern Sikkim feels this could be India’s best chance of finishing on the podium in Tokyo. “But critical issues in the system before the Games are hurting preparations,” he says.

“In the last six months, our top archers have competed in only two competitions abroad... It should have been six or seven by now. To handle the pressure of the Olympics, it’s important to compete as much as possible at the top level. One cannot prepare for the Olympics in training camps. For that you need actual competition,” says Rai.

But is anyone listening to Rai’s outpouring?

The national body is in turmoil for the last three years with two factions fighting to prove they are the guardians of the sport in the country. “Do you think our welfare is on their mind? It’s the last thing on the mind of the squabbling officials. If this fight continues, it will further damage our chances in Tokyo,” says Rai.

The Lausanne-based World Archery at an extraordinary executive board meeting recently gave India July 31 deadline to sort out its issues or face suspension. In April, wrangling between factions forced archers to pull out of the Medellin World Cup after the 23-member squad got government clearance at the last minute, giving them no time to reschedule their trip.

Rai, though, wants to put these negative thoughts behind him and concentrate on his preparations for his third Olympics.

Rai, who made his Olympic debut in 2004 Athens as a 19-year-old, feels the combination that earned India the quota place should not be tampered with, although an Olympic quota belongs to the country and not an individual.

“I do not like the idea of having trials to pick the final team two-three months before the Olympic Games. If players can win silver at the World Championships, it indicates they have the potential. The combination shouldn’t be changed because the sooner the team is decided the better it can prepare for the Olympics,” says Rai.

But while Sanjeeva Singh, former government observer for archery, agrees with Rai that the core group of 16 archers should be given the best possible training, support staff and exposure, he feels a team which has earned a quota place for the country cannot be given assurance that it will compete at the Games as well. “There are some really promising juniors in the core group. Talented archers like Jadhav have come up recently. There are many more like him. Hence, the best team should go to the Olympics,” says Singh.

As for the Tokyo roadmap, Singh says, “If the federation is incapable of discharging its duties, the government should step in and prepare the roadmap without wasting time.”