India missed out on winning a bronze medal in archery's mixed team event after the duo of Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara lost to the USA's dynamic pair of Brady Ellison and Casey Kaufhold. The match turned out to be a huge disappointment for India but Dhiraj is confident that the archers will showcase a much better showing in the upcoming events.
"Ups and downs are a part of sports. We have done much better compared to how we had performed at the London, Rio and Tokyo Olympics. We performed to the best of our ability to reach the bronze medal match in the mixed-team event. We fell inches short of winning the bronze because of the lack of experience," Dhiraj told India TV after suffering an agonising loss in the bronze-medal match.
Dhiraj praised the Sports Authority of India and the Target Olympic Podium Scheme for providing Indian archers with the ideal preparation leading into the Paris Olympics.
"The constant support from the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) helped us to reach so close to winning a medal at the Paris Olympics. We are not going to give up and are going to learn from our mistakes and improve," he added.
Dhiraj also revealed the reason why South Koreans dominate archery and added that India has registered rapid strides in archery and there are plenty of encouraging signs going forward.
"South Korea has had an amazing infrastructure when it comes to archery. The conditions in South Korea are ideal for the sport. Indian archers have come a long way and now our opponents keep an eye on us whenever we enter a tournament. We have learnt a lot from the Paris Olympics and are willing to improve and make more sacrifices in the coming days," he mentioned.
