Ms Usha may soon discover that winning four gold medals at the Asian Games and qualifying for the Los Angeles Olympics is a walk in the park compared with the challenges of stabilising governance at the IOA, observes Kanika Datta.
The Indian contingent, comprising under-20 boys and girls archers, were scheduled to leave for the United States on Friday for the June 8-14 event in Yankton, South Dakota, but the US embassy granted visas to only seven archers, two coaches and a Sports Authority of India official while rejecting 20, thereby putting serious doubts over India's participation in the event.
The exclusion of shooting, wrestling and archery from the initial programme of 2026 Commonwealth Games as "grave injustice" to the country
The development comes a day after the world body de-listed the Archery Association of India for violating the constitution by unanimously electing two parallel bodies in Chandigarh and New Delhi.
They will be against Chinese Taipei in the final on Sunday.
Deepika Kumari is a story of grits, guts and gumption.
Shooting's international federation (ISSF) has also confirmed complete support to India for hosting the proposed Commonwealth championships.
The senior recurve and compound teams could not board the flight to Medellin in Colombia and were forced to pull out of the season-opening stage one of the World Cup beginning on Monday.
The 47-year-old has developed swelling in both his legs after his injections could not be administered due to the ongoing nationwide lockdown to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
Country's archers have proved their mettle at the international level but they tend to choke at the biggest stage.
Unheralded Mohan Bhardwaj also shared the limelight as he stunned reigning World champion Nico Wiener en route to winning a dream World Cup individual silver medal as Indian compound archers outshone their much-fancied recurve teammates.
World Championship triple silver medallist Jyothi Surekha Vennam overcame the mighty Korean challenge twice, including in a gripping but controversial final, to win the women's compound individual gold at the Asian Archery Championships in Dhaka on Thursday.
India's first Paralympic medal winner archer Harvinder Singh, who had turned his farm at a Punjab village into a practice ground during the lockdown, on Tuesday attributed his success to long hours of training, including "practice of tie shots and breathing exercises".
A top Archery Association of India official blamed the foreign coaches for spoiling the natural ability of the players.
The Archery Association of India was forced to sack the American psychologist Allison Rodius as she has not been able to provide "quality support" to Athens-bound medal hopefuls.
Terming the election a start of a new era in Indian archery, Dielen said: 'We are pleased to see this progress and hope that this is really the start of a new era for Indian Archery.'
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) finalised a four-member delegation, which will accompany Sports Ministry officials, for a meeting with the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne on May 15 to find a way for India's return to the Olympic movement.
Ace Indian archer Dola Banerjee told Rediff.com that the biggest loss in the derecognition of the boxing and archery associations will be that of players.
With the Indian Olympic Association suspended by the International Olympic Committee, and the Archery Association of India not paying enough attention to its wards, it was time someone came forward to take up the archers' cause. That step was taken by Olympic Gold Quest by signing up Deepika Kumari and Jayanta Talukdar.
The derecognition of the Archery Association of India has jeopardised the careers of archers employed with the Railways as they have been asked not to take part in any tournament conducted by the AAI.
The Archery Association of India (AAI) hit out at the Government for de recognizing the body, calling the decision "unconstitutional and arbitrary".
The Archery Association of India (AAI) secretary general Paresh Nath Mukherjee is planning to resign from his position taking moral responsibility of disastrous performance of archers at the London Olympics.
Clueless about their future in the wake of Archery Association of India's (AAI) derecognition, the young marksmen hope to make an appeal through their players' association with the season scheduled to commence in a couple of months time.
With the much-awaited elections to the Archery Association of India (AAI) drawing closer, the national convenor of Clean Sports India B V P Rao, who will be challenging incumbent president V K Malhotra, has raised several issues to ensure that the elections are free and fair.
The Archery Association of India (AAI) has got a shot in the arm after the World Archery Federation (FITA) extended recognition to its elections and extended full support to it.
Struggling to explain the much-hyped archers' flop-show at the Olympic Games, coaches Limba Ram and Ravi Shankar today said they have no excuses to offer for the below-par performance.
With India set to compete in all four archery events of next month's London Olympics after the men's team made the cut, the country has the best chance to win a medal and script history, Archery Association Secretary General Paresh Nath Mukherjee said on Friday.
They migt be winning laurels for the country all over the world but Indian archers are treated like 'lepers' by the Sports Authority of India, alleges Archery Association of India Secretary General Paresh Nath Mukherjee.
Indian Olympic Association officials along with a delegation of the National Sports Federations are meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament on Wednesday to discuss the issue of new guidelines that seek to limit the tenure of sports administrators.
Delay in the completion of the the Commonwealth Games venues will rob the Indian athletes of the crucial home advantage as the players are losing out on getting a hang of the stadiums, Archery Association of India President V K Malhotra said on Tuesday.
If the country can have a Prime Minister above 70 then what is wrong in having National Sports Federation chiefs of similar age, asked Archery Association of India President Vijay Kumar Malhotra reacting sharply to the Delhi high court's decision that limits NSF heads' tenure.
The Indian trio of Rahul Banerjee, Mangal Singh Champia and Jayanta Talukdar clinched the men's team recurve gold medal with a 218-214 win over the US in the final of the World Cup archery (Stage II) in Antalya, Turkey.
The Indian men's team erased bitter memory of the past by ousting hosts China in the semi-final and sailing into the final of the recurve event in the Archery World Cup Stage IV, in Shanghai, on Friday. India face Japan in the summit-clash for the gold medal on Saturday.
Madhya Pradesh archers without any pre-match day practice concluded their campaign with two silver and one bronze
Indian archers bagged six gold, two silver and three bronze medals to reign supreme in the Dhaka leg of the Asian Grand Prix in Kolkata.
The 56-year-old has about 30 employees on the job who work to mass produce face masks, gloves and gowns for frontline workers. They manufacture about 1000 PPE gowns, which are supplied to his friend's company for wholesale distribution.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Deepika Kumari became only the second Indian archer to win a Youth World Championship title after bagging gold in the girls' Cadet Recurve category, in the 11th edition of the tournament at Ogden (Utah), United States.
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju advised the Boxing Federation of India to be transparent and resolve the Nikhat Zareen-Mary Kom in the best possible manner.
India's Deepika Kumari and Anikita Bhakat won the gold and silver medals respectively in the women's individual recurve event of the 21st Asian Archery Championships in Bangkok on Thursday.
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