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{/source}New Delhi: ‘Mecca of cricket’ Lord’s which has always proved lucky for the Indian cricket team is incidentally the host for the archery event in the 2012 London Olympics and ace Indian archer Tarundeep Rai hopes that it favours them as well.

"The Lord's have always been lucky for the Indian cricket team in the past. We won our first cricket World Cup cricket in there in 1983 and I hope that Lord's blesses us and has something great in store for us," said Rai.
Rai, who first participated in the 2004 Athens Olympics, would be competing for the second time in the quadrennial event said that the team is better poised to win a medal this time around.

"We are in better position to win a medal than the last time and are more focussed. Jayant (Talukdar) and Rahul (Banerjee) have done well and we are hungry for a medal and will definitely get one this time," Tarundeep said.
The Sikkim archer, who was a junior member at the Athens 2004, but now is a senior member in the Indian shooting contingent said that experience is his favor this time and he would try and bury his past and give it all at London.

"Athens was my third international event and you cannot expect someone to win a medal when he is participating in his third international event. We never had much exposure that time and I never had the experience required to be playing in the Olympics. But now I have the expertise and can promise that the mistakes would not be repeated,” added Rai.

Rai, who finished 32nd in individual and 11th in the team in 2004, said that to succeed in archery one requires to be technically and mentally fit. “Technically we have never lagged but then mentally it gave way but then now that we have a psychologist on board would help us be mentally fit.”

Technically we are at par with the world. But it is a combination of mental and technical.

The Indian archery team would leave tomorrow for London and undergo a 10 days training at Lord’s before taking their bow and arrow for the final battle.


By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News Newtwork