Indian archers plan to appeal against ban

Chennai: Clueless about their future in the wake of Archery Association of India`s derecognition, the young marksmen hope to make an appeal through their players` association as the season is all set to get underway in a couple of months time.

The Asian GP in Bangkok in March will be the first international event in the calendar but the Indian archers are not sure of the team composition yet as the AAI camp that was being held at SAI has been shut down. "We were told that the Senior Nationals performance will be the criteria. But after it got over yesterday here, nobody knows what`s next?" 2008 Olympian and Asian Games bronze medallist Mangal Singh Champia said. "We don`t have a coach yet. We are working on our individual effort and training with the help of SAI in Kolkata so as to keep in shape," Champia added. About 200 archers have come under the aegis of Archery Players Association of India (APAI) and are hopeful that their appeal would be heard. "We want to work with AAI and not go against them. After all we want to earn medals for our country. Hope that our mass appeal will be heard through APAI (that came up in January 2012)," vice-president Tarundeep Rai, the Asian Games silver medallist, said. The other long pending demands of the archers include recruitment of a foreign coach and junior development programme. PTI