International archer Jayanta Talukdar on Tuesday rued the dismal performance of the country's archery team in the ongoing London Olympics and said it urgently needed a psychologist and a physio-therapist to enhance its confidence level and mental science.
-London Olympics 2012 - Complete coverage
Talukdar, who himself got a hammering from USA's Jacob Wukie in the opening archery men's individual elimination round in London Olympics, admitted that the Indian archers could not handle the crowd pressure and the booing.
Besides, the unpredictable wind condition affected the archers, he said.
Also Deepika Kumari and other archers could not regain their rhythm after recovering from the viral fever they were affected with by soon after reaching London on July 17.
"London Olympics was the first one for both Deepika and me and the experience we gained there was that sportspersons will have to be mentally prepared and should have a high confidence level to win a medal," he said.
Asked whether any psychologist had accompanied the
Indian archery team to London, he replied in the negative. "We need a psychologist and a physio-therapist urgently to enhance our confidence as well as mental toughness to face the level of competition in Olympics."
Twentytwo year-old Talukdar, who was the first archer to qualify for the London Olympics, said he had to browse the internet to seek tips of psychologists, which he applied to enhance his confidence level.
Talukdar said he will be focusing on the next Olympics from now and strive to address all shortfalls.
Talukdar expressed dissatisfaction over reports in a section of the press particularly after Deepika's performance saying such an approach would only hamper her future performance.
"Representing the country in Olympics would be any sportspersons dream and we had tried our best to put up our
100 percent but could not succeeded ... We have to work upon some areas such as facing crowd pressure and enhancing confidence level," he said.
Deepika echoed him and said the London Olympic performance would not affect her game and she was confident of performing better in the next edition of the games.
About acclimatization, she said the team was not allowed to practice in the venue but had to do so in the open which affected them from adjusting to the weather condition.
With regard to facing the crowd pressure, she said
organisers of national championships should attract more spectators so that the atheletes get accustomed to facing it.
Indian woman archery coach, Purnima Mahto said Deepika will start practicing soon to retain her position in the World Cup stage IV to be held in Japan next month.
Tata Steel Vice-president (Corporate services) and president of Jharkhand Archery Association, Sanjiv Paul expressed confidence that Deepika and Talukdar would make the country proud in future.
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