Archer Vishwas slams federation after early defeat

JAKARTA: Indian archer Vishwas has slammed the Archery Association of India (AAI) for not backing him enough after losing the pre-quarterfinal of recurve individual event on Thursday. His 1-7 loss to Kazakh Ilfat Abdullin sparked a tirade from the veteran who accused AAI of never treating him as priority.

“When there are no expectations of a medal from us then what can we do. They don’t have focus on us. If they did they would have sorted out everything before we came here. I never felt myself as the priority player in the team,” said Vishwas, who won bronze at 2006 Doha. “It keeps you pinching all the time even when you are aiming for the target. It’s really humiliating.”

Barring Atanu Das, the other three archers in the four-member men’s recurve squad, including Vishwas, Sukhchain Singh and Jagdish Choudhary are not in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS). Procuring equipment too has been an issue. Despite Army’s full support, Vishwas hasn’t been able to get new equipment as Army has a process through which all requisitions are done. A brand new set costs more than ~3 lakh, including the bow and a dozen arrows. “Since 2017, I am shooting on a borrowed limb from Deepika Kumari, whereas the handle for my equipment was given by someone else,” said Vishwas.

Meanwhile, AAI acting president Tarlochan Singh refused to accept there was any shortcoming. “We give full support to our archers in terms of training, exposure etc. and there was no lacking on our part. I was expecting Vishwas to win a medal this time, but he missed out.”