National archery camp to resume on August 25 at Pune

The camp – comprising 16 recurve archers (including eight men and as many women), four coaches and two other support staff – will begin on August 25.

The national archery camp for Olympic hopefuls will resume at the Army Sports Institute in Pune on August 25. (Representative Image)

The National archery camp is all set to resume at the Army Sports Institute (ASI) Pune after the Army allowed the women archers to stay inside the ASI campus due to the prevailing coronavirus outbreak.

The camp – comprising 16 recurve archers (including eight men and as many women), four coaches and two other support staff – will begin on August 25. They will undergo 14 days mandatory quarantine inside the ASI campus, a Sports Authority of India (SAI) release said on Thursday.

The campers will go through the COVID test, which has been made mandatory at all National camps conducted by the SAI across the country.

 

According to sources, a request was made to the ASI to accommodate the women archers inside its campus because of the COVID outbreak.

“Since Pune is badly affected by the virus, asking the women archers to stay outside the campus (like they did during earlier camps) is never an option. The green signal for the camp came after the women were allowed to stay on the ASI campus,” said a source.

Archers Tarundeep Rai, Atanu Das, B. Dhiraj, Pravin Jadhav, Jayanta Talukdar, Sukhmani Babrekar, Kapil, Vishwas, Deepika Kumari, Ankita Bhakat, L. Bombayla Devi, Ridhi, Madhu Vedwan, Himani, Pramila Baria and Tisha Sancheti will be part of the camp.

 

Some of them, including Army archers Rai, Vishwas and Jadhav, have been training at the ASI since the beginning of the lockdown period.

India has bagged Olympic quota places in a women’s individual and the men's team events.

Guidelines of the Union Health Ministry, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of the SAI along with guidelines of the Maharashtra state government will be implemented during the training.