Indian archers at the World Stage

Archery has grown in popularity and participation at the Olympics has gone up from 27 countries in 1972 to an all-time high of 49 in 2008. Archers from South Korea (team Men, individual Women, team Women) and USA (individual Men) have dominated the sport since the beginning of the modern archery competition at the Olympic Games in 1972. Italy have made their presence felt in the Men’s events while China is becoming a serious threat in the Women’s events. (Medal Tables)

India at the Olympics:
India has participated in all the Olympic archery competitions from 1988 Seoul to 2008 Beijing except for 2000 Sydney. Here’s a list of Indian archers who have participated at the Olympics thus far:

2008 Beijing
The build-up to 2008 Olympics

• Mangal Singh Champia (along with Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Vishwas) had won the bronze medal in the team competition at the 2006 Asian Games.
• Dola Banerjee who won an individual first place at the Antalya European Grand Prix in 2005; also won gold medals at the Dover World Cup and the Dubai World Cup Final in 2007. She was ranked No. 12 in the world and was a genuine medal hopeful.

individual Men: Mangal Singh Champia*

• At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Champia finished his ranking round with a total of 678 points, just one point behind Juan René Serrano and equal with Viktor Ruban and scoring more bull’s eyes than Serrano. This gave him the second seed for the final competition bracket in which he faced Hojjatollah Vaezi in the first round (round of 64), beating the Iranian 112-98. In the second round (round of 32) Champia faced 31st seed Bair Badënov, but was unable to beat the Russian who won with 109-108. Badënov went on to win the bronze medal.

individual Women: Dola Banerjee, Pranitha Vardhineni, L Bombayla Devi

• Dola Banerjee and L Bombayla Devi bowed out of the women’s individual archery event after losing their respective opening round matches (round of 64).
• Pranitha Vardhineni went down 99-106 to Kwon Un Sil of Korea in a second round (round of 32) match.

team women: Dola Banerjee, Pranitha Vardhineni, L Bombayla Devi

• Dola, Pranitha and Bombayla, the trio which got a bye in the first round, lost 206-211 to the Chinese trio of Lin Jiang, Wenquan Li and Feng Hai Xue in the quarter-final.

2004 Athens
individual Men: Sawaiyan Majhi, Satyadev Prasad, Tarundeep Rai

• Sawaiyan Majhi (ranked 59/64) and Tarundeep Rai (ranked 43/64) lost in the first round (round of 64).
• Satyadev Prasad reached the pre-quarter finals/third round (round of 16) where he lost (ranked 10/64) to top seed Im Dong Hyun of South Korea on the last arrow in a dramatic duel.

team Men: Sawaiyan Majhi, Satyadev Prasad, Tarundeep Rai

• India went down (ranked 11/13) 236-248 to Australia in the first round/pre-quarter final (round of 13).

individual Women: Dola Banerjee, Sumangala Sharma, Reena Kumari

• Dola Banerjee lost (ranked 52/64) in the first round (round of 64).
• Sumangala Sharma reached (ranked 24/64)  the second round (round of 32).
• Reena Kumari reached (ranked 15/64) the pre-quarter finals/third round (round of 16).

team Women: Dola Banerjee, Sumangala Sharma, Reena Kumari

• The Indian troika suffered a solitary point (227-228) loss (ranked 8/15) to their French counterparts in the 27-arrow quareter-final tie.

1996 Atlanta
individual Men: Changte Lalremsaga, Limba Ram, Skalzang Dorje

• Changte Lalremsaga (ranked 25/64) reached the second round (round of 32).
• Limba Ram (ranked 63/64) and Skalzang (ranked 47/64) Dorje lost in the first round (round of 64).

team Men: Changte Lalremsaga, Limba Ram, Skalzang Dorje

• The Indian team lost (ranked 14/16) in the first round (round of 16).

1992 Barcelona
The build-up to 1992 Barcelona:

• 1989: Limba Ram led the country to team gold (Limba Ram, Shyam Lal Meena, Skeljung Dorjee) at the Beijing Asian Cup pushing world champion South Korea to second place. In the individual event too his performance was impressive. He stormed into the finals where he lost to Korean heavyweight Jio In Soo by the thinnest of margin. He shot 311 to Jio’s 312.
• 1990: Limba Ram led India to the fourth position in the team event at the 1990 Beijing Asian Games.
• 1992: In 1992, Limba Ram helped the Indian team to win a bronze in the prestigious Spring Arrow championship in USSR and then he picked up three gold medals including overall individual title and a world record equaling performance at an international meet in Beijing. He shot an incredible 357 from 30m distance to equal the existing world mark held by Matsushito Takahashi of Japan since 1987. This performance had raised the hopes of a medal at the Barcelona Olympics.

individual Men: Changte Lalremsaga, Dhulchand Damor, Limba Ram***

• Changte Lalremsaga (ranked 53/75) and Dhulchand Damor (ranked 66/75) lost in the ranking round which narrowed down the field from 75 to 32.
• Limba Ram cleared the ranking round but lost (ranked 23/75) in the first elimination round (round of 32).

team Men: Changte Lalremsaga, Dhulchand Damor, Limba Ram

• The Indian team cleared the ranking round which narrowed down the field from 20 to 16. However, the team lost (ranked 16/20) in the first elimination round (round of 16)

1988 Seoul
individual Men: Limba Ram, Sanjeev Singh, Shyam Lal Meena

• Limba Ram (ranked 39/84), Sanjeev Singh (ranked 36/84) and Shyam Lal Meena (ranked 71/84) lost in the ranking round which narrowed down the field from 84 to 24.

team Men: Limba Ram, Sanjeev Singh, Shyam Lal Meena

• The Indian team lost (ranked 20/22) in the ranking round which narrowed down the field from 22 to 12.