De-recognised federation, lack of funding hurt Indian archers' Asiad preparation:Coach

The absence of a recognised national federation has dried up funding for Indian archers, who did not get enough time to acclimatise to the conditions here ahead of the Asian Games, recurve coach Sawaiyan Manjhi lamented today.

Manjhi said the Indian archers should have trained here for a month to get acclimatised to the conditions and also played some test events.

But since the Archery Association of India (AAI) is de-recognised, there were no funds for foreign training and competitions for the archers before the Games.

"The government does not provide funds to a de-recognised body. Funding is the main issue. We should have come here last year at the same time and train here for at least a month then we would have been in a better frame of mind," Manjhi told PTI.

"Or we should have played some test events ahead of the Games."
"You will see them doing well. If they were at some other place, they would fare different but they are definitely expected to do better here. Understanding conditions is very important."
"If the government had to take some action, they should have banned people, why de-recognise the Federation and why should archers suffer?
"Archers who are not financially well off are suffering. They used to get concession of 75 per cent from Railways for travel to competitions and training but now it has been stopped because the body is de-recognised."