A strong Indian archery contingent will look to grab all the 10 gold medals on offer when they open their campaign with the qualification round in the 12th South Asian Games at the Jawaharlal Sports Complex Polo Ground on Friday.
Former world No 1 and India's Olympic medal hope Deepika Kumari will lead the country's charge in the women's recurve section along with another Olympian in Laishram Bombayla Devi, who will be joined by Madhu Vedwan and Laxmirani Majhi who won the national ranking final last month.
Asian Games silver medalist Tarundeep Rai will look to defend his title in the individual recurve section, which will also have the experience of Jayanta Talukdar besides the youngster duo of Binod Swansi and Gurucharan Besra.
Indian archery coach Dharmendra Tiwari feels unless there's a major hiccup they are favourites to win all the 10 gold medals on offer.
"The target is to win 10 gold medals. The team is in good form and played in the National Ranking at the same venue earlier in January. Our closest rival would be Bangladesh and Bhutan in the recurve section," Tiwary told PTI after the team's practice session on Thursday.
Compound section will makes its debut in the 12th edition of the SA Games as India already a big force at the World level poised to have a cakewalk.
World No 5 and 6 duo of Rajat Chauhan and Abhishek Verma will spearhead the men's challenge along with the duo of Manash Jyoti Changmai and C Srither. Verma is coming back from a fruitful 2015 where he had bagged India, a historic silver medal at the World Cup Final in Mexico as he also had won the World Cup Stage 3 gold in Wroclaw.
Youngster Chauhan, who's currently ahead of Verma in world ranking, will get an able support from the senior pro as he too had a successful 2015 where he had won World Cup Stage 1 gold in Shanghai, World YOuth Championship gold in Wuxi, a silver in World Championship in Copenhagen.
"The rival nations are taking baby steps in compound section where we're already a force to reckon with. We should make a clean sweep with ease," the national coach said.
Tiwary however had a word of caution for his wards as the competition will be conducted inside a stadium so the wind flow maybe inconsistent.
"Wind may come from all the sides, it will be all about excelling in the conditions and yes the chill will have an effect too."
The women's compound section will have P Lily Chanu, V Jyothi Surekha, Swati Dudhwal and Purvasha Sudhir Shende.
Archery is one discipline where India have been ruling the roost since the sport made its debut in the 2006 South Asian Games in Colombo where they had won all the four gold medals on offer. In the last edition of the SA Games in Dhaka, they also reigned supreme with a medal haul of four gold, one silver and a bronze.
After being in the sidelines because of a shoulder injury, Tarundeep came back from a two year hiatus to win the individual gold, while Dola won in women's section.
