New Delhi:
Boasting of world champions, the Indian archery team will look to hit the bull's eye despite being up against a formidable field when the sport returns to the Commonwealth Games after 28 years at the Yamuna Sports Complex range here on Monday.
With 2007 World Cup final winner Dola Banerjee, the 12-member Indian squad will target the recurve individual and team events to grab at least six gold medals that head coach Limba Ram has targetted out of the eight up for grabs.
"We have a strong side with a lot of experience. We should make merry in the home conditions and hope for six gold medals with top places in men's and women's recurve section," Limba said.
Asked about their preparation, Limba said, "We have been preparing for the CWG and Asian Games for the last two years. There were no exposure trips but our archers have done really well at the different legs of the World Cup and the Asian GPs."
Gearing up for the premier event, the archers have made an early start in March 2009 with a core group of 64 that has been pruned to a 12-member squad -- three each in the recurve and compound bow sections (men's and women's).
There will be 16 medals (gold, silver and bronze) up for grabs with individual and team events in each category.
Tarundeep Rai, Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee will lead the challenge against the likes of three-time Olympian Matthew Gray, Australia's best medal chance, in a high-voltage men's recurve field.
Gray will compete alongside compatriots Taylor Worth and Mathew Masonwells.
The Indian men's trio is high on confidence especially after their gold medal triumph in the World Cup Stage 4 in Shanghai (September 2-5) with a record 224 score, the highest so far.
"Everything is going in the right direction for us. In the initial round at the World Cup, we beat England who will again compete against us at the CWG. We also beat Asian Games competitors China (in the semis)," a confident Banerjee said.
Indian archers had begun the year in style as they swept all the gold medals at the 11th South Asian Games in Dhaka.
In the run-up to CWG, the women's recurve team were not as successful as their men's counterpart but the rise of 14-year-old Deepika Kumari, who won a silver in World Cup Stage 4 (Shanghai), augurs well for them.
The Ranchi girl, incidentally, is also the reigning cadet world champion and senior national champion.
The team returned empty-handed from the Shanghai meet but they had made up for men's disappointing performance at the World Cup Stage 3 (Ogden, August 4-8) winning the silver.
The only Indian to win a World Cup Grand Final (Dubai, 2007), Dola will lead the charge of the women's side.
"We would have about two weeks time at the Yamuna Sports Complex (the CWG venue) to get used to the condition. Besides, we did well at the test competition in the same venue," Dola said.
Among the stars in women's recurve, 38-year old Olympic veteran Deonne Bridger will take to the range with Dawn Nelson and 2008 Olympian Alexandra (Lexie) Feeney, daughter of Peter who coached the Indians for a brief period.
However, India will have a tough task in the compound bow section as teams like Australia, South Africa and Canada are expected to give the hosts a run for their money.
Three medallists from last year's world championships have made the trip to New Delhi as well.
Liam Grimwood (England) took silver in compound men at the 2009 Ulsan world championship, while Stephen Clifton (New Zealand) earned bronze.
In Korea, the 18-year old Jorina Coetzee of South Africa also won silver in compound women.
Eight medallists from the 2007 Leipzig world championships will also compete at the Commonwealth Games including the entire compound men's team of Australia -? Clint Freeman, Patrick Coghlan, Robert Timms -? the runners-up at the 2007 world championships.
Around 125 athletes from 24 countries will vie for top honours in archery which is making its return to the Commonwealth Games after 1982, Brisbane.
There will be some of the world's finest archers in the fray including 10 who took part in the recently-held World finals.
Besides the Indian trio of Jayanta Talukdar, Dola Banerjee and Deepika Kumari, Simon Terry, Alan Wills, Naomi Folkard, Nicky Hunt and Chris White from England as well as Ashley Wallace (Canada) and Shaun Teasdale (New Zealand) will be there to add glamour to the competition.
Terry had won Olympic bronze both in individual and team in Barcelona 1992, while Wlliamson bagged the individual bronze in Athens 2004.
Paralympic gold medallist Danielle Brown has been named in England's archery squad and the 22-year old will become the first to represent England in an able-bodied event.
She will compete in compound women together with Nicky Hunt and Nichola Simpson.
The qualifications will be held tomorrow, while the first rounds of eliminations will take place on October 5-6.
Compound team finals, recurve team finals, compound individual finals and recurve individual finals will be competed respectively from October 7-10.