Aiming for the maiden Olympic medal via Sonepat centre

The High Performance Centre (HPC) for Archery at Sports Authority of India (SAI) in Sonepat (Haryana), which was opened to archers in March, played a key role in preparing the archers for the upcoming Olympic Games, scheduled to begin on July 26 in Paris, France. 

The indoor facility at the campus, located about 40 kilometres from Delhi, is built in an area of 35mx20m and the overall budget for the centre was Rs 14 crore. The centre also includes an outdoor facility for archery, which gets difficult to use during rains and biting cold. 

Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, the AAI (Archery Association of India) High Performance Director, said that the centre will be a big boost for the development of the sport in the country and will support elite Indian archers in preparing for major international competitions including Asian Games and Olympic Games in future. 

Singh, a former national coach and Dronacharya awardee in archery said, “The Centre will be one of the best training centres in Asia. Some of the equipment has arrived and already installed. More scientific equipment is on the way and should reach the centre by next month.” 

The training centre has equipment that can measure the speed of the arrow when released by the archer. There is equipment to do specific exercises for archers and video analysis system, Singh added. 

“There is a heart rate monitor system to check the heartbeat of the athlete when he or she is competing and while at rest. There is also a feet-monitoring system to check the stability of the athletes when they are in shooting position. All the equipment is meant to check biomechanics of the archers to improve performance,” revealed the Director of High Performance. 

“Screen (LED) at the field of play will be installed which will be part of the monitoring system.” 

It should be noted that despite winning several World Cup titles in recurve archery, which is the Olympic category, India are yet to win a medal at the prestigious quadrennial games. None of the Indian archers have progressed beyond the quarterfinal stage. 

The entire Indian archery squad travelling to Paris practiced at the Sonepat centre during several camps, and also underwent the selection trials there. 

In fact, both the compound and recurve archers, when not competing abroad, are based at the HPC in Sonepat. 

SAI has also set up NCOE (National Centre of Excellence) in Archery in Sonepat. Promising archers have been enrolled at the NCOE and foreign expert Baek Woong Ki from South Korea was also appointed last year to polish the skills of the promising archers at the centre. He was later put in charge of the Indian team at the HPC. 

The choice of a South Korean coach was made since the east Asian nation has been the most successful nation at the Olympics over the last nine editions. 

According to Singh, more equipment will be installed in future and the centre should be complete by early 2025. 

“There is a plan to have Cryotherapy (cold therapy) which is one of the most effective methods for recover y and rehabilitation to treat sports injuries,” informed the High Performance Director. 

Coaching Education 

Apart from providing modern training and scientific equipment to the athletes, the AAI in coordination with SAI also conducted coaches’ education programme in archery at the centre to upgrade the knowledge of the coaches. 

“Almost 40 coaches from across the country were part of the education programme held in Sonepat,” Singh said. 

Indoor Facility 

According to the Korean coach Woong Ki, it’s pretty cold during winter months in December and January in India, hence there was the need for an indoor centre. 

“It is challenging to practice outdoors. This is India’s first indoor archery centre, and it has been set up with the support of the government and archery federation,” explained Woong Ki.

The Korean archery expert said that the modern facilities will contribute immensely to the development of archery in India.

More than 15 archers can practice indoors at the same time. There are also provisions for disabled archers to practice, the foreign coach added.

“There is a video analysis system to monitor archers’ techniques during practice,” the Korean coach said. “Bow alignment and arrow tuning are also possible at the centre.” 

Woong Ki Left Out 

The Korean archery expert overseeing the training of the Paris-bound archers was denied Olympic accreditation last week. 

He attended the pre-event 10 days training in France but had to return to Sonepat. Woong Ki’s name was not in the list of coaching staff cleared by the Union sports ministry on July 16. 

After the archery team moved to the Games Village on July 19, Woong Ki waited for a day and then took a flight back to India and reached Sonepat on July 21. 

The contract of the Korean coach, who gets a monthly salary of $10,000, will expire on August 30. The upset Korean archery expert has said that he will not renew his contract. 

Woong Ki had guided the South Korean team to two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games. 

Sanjeeva Kumar Singh too was denied accreditation. 

Sonam Tshering Bhutia (male) and Purnima Mahato (female) are the two coaches whose names were cleared by the government. The qualification matches in archery will start on July 25 in Paris. 

Indian Archery Team For Paris Olympic Games: Men: Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadav and Dhiraj Bommadevara. Women: Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur and Ankita Bhakat….