Indian archers tune-up for Paris Olympics under new Korean coach

Indian archers will begin an important phase of their preparation for the Paris Olympics qualifiers at the World Cup-Stage 1 in Antalya, Turkey starting on Tuesday. The team is going there under its new Korean coach Baek Woong-ki.

Baek, who coached the Korean women to individual and team gold at the 2012 London Olympics, has been guiding the Indian team since November and the juniors have made good progress under him.

His hiring was part of Archery Association of India's plans to prepare the archers for Paris. The world championships in Berlin from July 31 is an Olympic qualification tournament while the Asian Games in China and the Asian Championships will also offer individual quota places for the Olympics.

“We were looking to hire a Korean coach for the last two years, but now things have fallen into place. He has been guiding the junior and senior teams since November," said India's high performance director Sanjeeva Singh. “Baek has been roped in till the Asian Games and based on the performance of the teams his tenure will get extended till the Paris Olympics.”

Indian archery is in a transition phase as several promising juniors have secured spots in the national squad for the three Olympic qualification events following a new selection policy that focusses on consistency and one-on-one shooting skills.

The juniors also put up a good showing at the Asia Cup stage 3 held in Sharjah in December and in the Asia Cup Stage-1 World Ranking tournament in Taoyuan, Chinese Taipei recently.

“The reason why the juniors are doing well is because of the new coach. He is working on psychological, physical and technical aspects. He is not someone who forces people to adopt his way, he gives you freedom," says Singh.

"The juniors are consistently doing well. They are beating the seniors. We are building bench strength, there are more domestic tournaments and there is greater emphasis on sports science.”

Though the Indian archers have been doing well at the international stage, they buckle under pressure in the Olympics. To break this sequence, AAI this time wants to cover all bases before the Paris Olympics.

"We know Korea is much advanced in the sport. We felt we require a coach who has the expertise to guide our archers for the Olympics. We are winning medals at the World Cup, but we are unable to win at the Olympics. It is time we changed that. So, if you talk about sports science, psychological aspects and the finer aspects of training, a foreign coach is important, especially keeping the Olympics in mind.”

“He has very good observation power. He takes all the coaches along and looks at the team in a holistic way and ensures team bonding. Training goes the same way.”

Teams: Recurve Men: B Dhiraj, Atanu Das, Tarundeep Rai, Neeraj Chauhan

Recurve Women: Bhajan Kaur, Aditi Jaiswal, Ankita Bhakat, Simranjit Kaur

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