The team comprising Tarundeep Rai, Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee defeated Australia by a comfortable margin of 12 points in the semifinals. The Indian trio shot 221, while the Australians couldn’t go beyond 209 and made way for the Indians. It was the last chance for the men’s team. The women’s team qualified last year.
“It is a great feeling, as all our hard work has paid off. We have been working for this since many months and I am happy that the qualification has come with a very good performance,” said Talukdar while talking to DNA from USA.
The team reached Ogden five days ahead of the qualifiers and according to Talukdar, this played a major role in their win. “We reached there well in advance and got used to the weather and wind conditions. It helped us a lot in adapting according to the situation and doing well,” Talukdar said.
This being the last qualifiers, the archers were under pressure and the pressure aggravated when Banerjee lost his bow box in transit. “I had a very disturbing time since I came here. I lost my bow and arrows and had to borrow them from Tarundeep, Jayanta and a few archers from the US. It is a difficult thing to shoot from someone else’s equipment. It takes at least two months for an archer to get used to a new bow, but I am glad that I shot well along with my teammates and we made it to London,” said Banerjee.
Though he got his kit back before the semis, he chose to shoot with the borrowed kit. “I decided to continue with the borrowed bow as I was doing well with it,” he said.
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