SHILLONG: With barely a day to go for the kick off to the biggest sporting extravaganza in the State so far, athletes were seen honing their skills in the run up to the event.
The Indian archery team, which has arrived in Shillong for the 12th South Asian Games held a practice session for the Compound event at the Cricket Ground, Polo on Wednesday.
The India side is hopeful of a good show in the multinational event.
Compound ace Rajat Chauhan, who earned India its first ever individual medal in the World Archery Championships in 2015 said that the team is all pepped up and confident of an “excellent show” in the Games.
A candid and happy go lucky Chauhan, however, admitted that he was touch nervous every time he represented the country.
The Compound event team comprises of P Lily Chanu, V Jyothi Surekha, Swati Dudhwal and Purvasha Sudhir Shinde in the women’s category and Rajat Chauhan, Abhishek Verma, Manash Jyoti Changmai and C Srither in the men’s category.
The Indian Recurve team, meanwhile, comprises of Jayanta Talukdar, Binod Swansi, Tarundeep Rai and Gurucharan Besra making up the men’s team and Deepika Kumari, L Bombayla Devi, Madhu Vedwan and Laxmirani Majhi the women’s side.
The heavyweight Indian side with Olympians in its ranks is a clear favourite for the event. The hosts had bagged all the eight gold medals in Archery during the last SAG in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the Bhutan archery contingent also attended a practice session at the JN Complex on Wednesday under the watchful eyes of their coach Tashi Thsering.
The 16-member contingent, eight in Compound and eight in Recurve are hopeful of a better show in this edition of the Games.
Bhutan had failed to win any medals in the Dhaka SAG in 2010.
Thsering said his side is determined to bag some medals here and is ready to take on the mighty Indian Team.
Reacting to a query he said that the weather in Shillong was just perfect for the Bhutanese who were used to harsher conditions.
The Archery event for the 12th South Asian Games is slated to begin on February 5 with the Qualification Rounds. Individual matches will follow on the 6th.
