Indian archers fail to turn up for medal match; AAI orders probe

Indian men's compound archery team failed to turn up for a bronze medal play-off match in the World University Games, prompting the Archery Association of India to order a probe into the matter.

According to the communication manager of the World Archery Chris Wells, the men's compound team comprising Gurwinder Singh, Kanwalpreet Singh and Aman was not present at the start of the match against Italy at 10am local time in Gwangju, South Korea.

As per the World Archery rules if a team is not present at the start of a final match then that game is forfeited.

Expressing shock at the incident, AAI secretary general Anil Kamineni said they are writing to the team as well the organisers to get into the root of the matter. "This does not concern AAI as the team is sent by the Association of Indian Universities. But many India archers were part of the team so we're probing the matter," Kamineni told PTI.

He, however, rubbished reports that claimed the archers were busy sightseeing. "At 10am in the morning they cannot go sightseeing. Moreover, most of them are senior archers and they know their responsibilities."

Indian coach Jiwanjot Singh, however, has blamed it on equipment malfunction.

"Gurwinder's bow string broke and none of the archers were carrying a spare bow. So we had to send a guy to the team hotel and get a bow from the girls. We reached the competition venue exactly two minutes after the reporting time but the officials did not give in to our request," Jiwanjot was quoted saying in the media.