Team bonding in quarantine to assist India in final Tokyo qualifiers: Deepika Kumari

The 10-day quarantine interval in Paris did wonders for staff bonding, feels seasoned Deepika Kumari as Indian ladies’s archery staff will get prepared for his or her last Tokyo Olympic qualifier occasion on Sunday.
The world quantity three Deepika, who has already certified for Olympics within the particular person recurve class, has a unique problem this time although.
As the senior-most archer, she has to carry out the very best from her staff, comprising teenager Komalika Bari and fast-improving Ankita Bhakat — the one change to the staff that missed out on the staff quota from the World Championships in 2019.
“Normally, I stay aloof and take time to gel with the juniors but during this quarantine in Vichy, we would spend hours together after practice,” the senior-most Indian archer instructed PTI from Paris, forward of their ladies’s staff Final Qualifier for Tokyo Olympics on Sunday.
“Transparency hona chaiye team game mein (transparency is key to team’s success) and I think it is helping us tremendously. I’m happy with the team coordination. We understand each other very well now.”
“As a senior-most member of the team, the priority for me is to remain confident all the time so that it rubs off on them. Acha karna hai aur karwana bhi hai (I’ve to do well myself and also help bring out the best from them). It’s my duty,” Deepika, who’s certain for her third successive Olympics, mentioned.
The ladies’s staff checked in forward of the boys’s and compound groups and entered a bio-secure bubble in Vichy, about 400kms from the venue Stade Charlety in Paris however they had been allowed to apply.
“It’s their first time and it’s natural for them to be nervous. I don’t want my team to miss out after one poor round. My role will always be to push them and take them to a zone so that they can give their best for qualification,” Deepika, who just lately turned 27, mentioned.
The Indian ladies’s recurve staff of Deepika Laishram Bombayla Devi and Komalika had slumped to a 2-6 loss in opposition to lower-ranked Belarus to crash out of the Tokyo 2020 quota race on the World Archery Championships in Den Bosch, the Netherlands two years in the past.
Since then India made a solitary change with Ankita making the lower and it labored wonders as they gained a dramatic last in opposition to Mexico on the first stage of the World Cup in Guatemala City in April. It was Indian ladies’s staff’s first gold medal since Wroclaw-2014.
“She (Ankita) is showing a lot of maturity in shooting, she has improved a lot score wise too. We just have to fine-tune a few aspects in her mental game and we have started working on it,” Deepika mentioned.
On her Jharkhand teammate Komalika, Deepika mentioned: “She is young and fearless. If she gets the right kind of coaching and mental training, she can go all the way.”
“There will at all times be a little bit of stress on us, it’s regular. In truth, a little bit of stress is sweet to carry out your finest. You shouldn’t be overconfident. Rest we are going to see the way it goes through the precise match. accordingly we are going to deal with it there.
“There has been a lot of improvement. We are shooting consistently well and confident of qualifying,” she mentioned.Incidentally, it’s in the identical venue of Paris that Deepika had clinched a World Cup Final silver eight years in the past.
“Yes, I remember every bit of it and certainly it will boost my confidence,” she signed off.