London Olympics: Archery - Player's profile

ARCHERY

With the team finals scheduled on July 28 (men) and 29 (women), ahead of the individuals on August 2 (women) and Aug 3 (men), the archers will look to open the tally for India.

Women's Individual Event (3): Laishram Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari, Chekrovolu Swuro.

Women's Recurve Team Event (1): Laishram Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Chekrovolu Swuro

Women

Deepika Kumari

Deepika came into the limelight by winning the 11th Youth World Archery Championship in Ogden, USA, in 2009 at the age of 15. She carried her superb form to the senior level too, winning gold in the Commonwealth Games and World Cup.

She is the reigning World No. 1 archer. She had prevailed over the world's best archers from Korea, which makes her a medal favourite this time.

Age: 18

Achievements:

Gold: Youth World C'ship in Aug 2011 (Poland); July 2009 (Ogden)

Silver: WC in Ogden, Aug 2011; WC finals in Istanbul, Sept 2011;

WC in Shanghai, September 2010.

L Bombayla Devi

This will be Bombayla's second Olympics. She was the first woman to qualify for the Beijing Games.

Age: 27

Achievements:

Silver: South Asian Games in Dhaka, Feb 2010

Bronze: Asian Grand Prix in Dhaka, Oct 2009

Chekrovolu Swuro

The archer from Nagaland is a tough fighter and never loses heart under pressure. Has been on the circuit for more than a decade now and has a lot of exposure and experience.

Age: 30

Achievements:

Bronze: Asian Grand Prix in Yangon, Myanmar, Nov 2006.

Team

Gold: Women's team World Cup in Shanghai, September 2011

Silver: World Championships in Turin, July 2011; World Cup in Ogden, August 2011

Bronze: World Cup in Antalya, June 2011

Note: In team events, achievements considered only when this particular combination of Bombayla, Chekrovolu & Deepika represented India.

Men's Individual event (1): Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai

Jayanta Talukdar: This Guwahati lad is one of the most consistent archers. Talukdar was the first Indian archer to win a gold medal at the World Cup in 2006. He is currently the highest ranked male Indian archer at World No. 15.

Tarundeep Rai: This will be the Sikkim lad's second Olympics. At the age of 20 he participated in the 2004 Athens Olympics. He suffered a career-threatening shoulder injury which put him out of action for almost two years but made a strong comeback.

Rahul Banerjee: The younger brother of the iconic Dola Banerjee, Rahul has watched how his sister prepared for the Olympics. He showed character by qualifying for the team event in spite of losing his bow box before the last qualifying event.

Men's Recurve Team event (1): Jayanta Talukdar, Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai

Team achievements

Gold: World Cup in Shanghai (September 2010)

Silver: World Cup in Porec (May 2011); Asian Championship in New Delhi (November 2005)

Bronze: Commonwealth Games in New Delhi (October 2010)

Note: In team events, achievements considered only when the combination of Rahul, Tarundeep and Jayanta represented India.