A long return path for Jayanta Talukdar

New Delhi, August 6: “It is very sad that the Indian men won’t have any representation in the recurve section team event of the Beijing Olympics archery competition. This is very sad,” said India’s ace archer Jayanta Talukdar during an informal chat with The Indian Express over the phone from Jamshedpur.

But when the Olympic qualifiers kicked off at Ulsan, Korea, in April this year, the Indian men’s recurve team was way ahead as far as their chance of qualifying for the 2008 Olympics was concerned, in comparison to the women’s team.

They had four World Cups and the World Championships to book their ticket to Beijing. This, many thought, was easy picking, with archers like Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee in their ranks.

“Qualification for the Olympics is not a problem at all,” said the senior pro in the men’s team, Tarundeep Rai, before leaving for the World Championships in Leipzig.

“With a little bit of luck, we should qualify easily,” added the man in form at the moment, Rahul Banerjee.

These words were echoed by the top brass in the administration and also the coaches.

But at the end of it all, it was the women’s team that had the last laugh. They not only qualified for the Olympics in the team event but also went on to bag a bronze medal in the fourth World Cup at Dover. The men’s team finished a lowly 10th at the Leipzig event and never crossed the second round in any of the World Cups.

And there are plenty of reasons for it. Lack of form, injury to senior players, inexperience — all combined to leave the men’s team ill at ease.

And all through, Talukdar — the man who was touted to keep the Indian flag flying high after his remarkable performances in 2005-06 when he became the first Indian to win a World Cup gold at Porec in Croatia — just watched it from the sidelines, praying that he regains his touch so he can take aim at his long cherished dream — the Olympics in Beijing.

“No one ever thought that we won’t qualify for the team event in Leipzig,” said Talukdar, a former world No 1 who was nursing an injury on the bow arm since February. He took part in the National Ranking Tournament in Pune after a three-month sabbatical and like any other sportsman, Talukdar was a mere shadow of his former self during the first couple of tournaments after his comeback. He took time to regain his touch and by the time he found it, the sun was in setting mode.

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