Jamshedpur: Archer Tarundeep Rai strongly advocated appointment of a psychologist for the Indian archery team.
"A psychologist and a physio-therapist are as important for a team as a coach," Rai, a silver medallist in the Asian Games said.
Though top ranked archers have psychologist on personal level or their sponsors, Rai, who alongwith CWG gold medallist Rahul Banerjee had a psychologist sponsored by "Olympic Gold quest" to improve their performances, said it would be more effective had we have a psychologist for the team.
"We still have time to seek help of a psychologist to win medals at the Olympic games," he replied when asked whether it was not already late for such an idea.
Rai, a strong contender for the two quota places of the country for the Olympic Games scheduled for July-August was in the steel city to take part in the ongoing 32nd Senior National Archery championship at JRD Tata sports complex here, said appointment of a physio was also important for the team.
About the prospect of the Indian women recurve team (comprised of Deepika Kumari, L. Bombalya Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro) and lone men archer Jayanta Talukdar qualified for the Olympics, Rai said they should be sent to London or any country having similar weather conditions about a fortnight before the start of Olympics for acclimatization.
Asked about the prospect of the Indian team to fill the two vacant quota places for the Olympics, he said "we have good prospect even though we had to face tough teams such as Japan, China Taipei and Australia.
PTI
First Published: Friday, January 27, 2012, 09:57