Jayanta Talukdar’s big Olympic dream has certainly received a jolt. But he is neither giving it up, nor is it all over for the ace archer. Though he was dropped from the Indian squad for the World Cup Archery Tournament (Stage III) at Antalaya in Turkey from May 28 to June 2, the archer can still make it to Beijing.

“He can still qualify for the Summer Games provided he does well in the 44th World Outdoor Target Archery Championships at Leipzig in Germany during July 7-15,” said his coach Dharmender Tiwari speaking to The Indian Express on phone from Jamshedpur.

Tiwari, apart from being the coach of the Indian team for the world meet along with Mun Baek Woon of Korea, is also the chief coach of the Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur where Jayanta trains. He said that Jayanta is not someone who is going to take this setback very seriously so as to effect his career.

“He is too good an archer to be affected by such things,” said Tiwari and added: “On the contrary, this (dropping from the squad) could act as a boost and he knows how to stage a strong comeback. The Pune meet was his first in almost five months. Before the break, he was also complaining of some pain in his bow arm. It has healed completely now but he is a bit out of practice. All Jayanta needs now is more and more practice and he will be back where he belongs.”

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