Tokyo 2020: Jadhav selection was clean and fair: India archery coach
India’s hope for a medal in the mixed pair section went up in smoke after the new-look duo of Deepika Kumari and Jadhav lost to their Korean opponents in the quarterfinals here on Saturday.
“It was a clean and fair selection. We went with our highest ranked players in the qualification round. It was not a mistake,” Gurung told PTI, defending the decision to pick Jadhav ahead of Das.
The archery couple Deepika and Das had come to Tokyo less than a month after winning a World Cup gold medal in Paris. But here, Jadhav was the best among the Indian trio, finishing 31st, four places ahead of Deepika’s ‘favourite’ partner Das in the individual ranking round.
The mixed teams are normally formed on the basis of top scores by the male and female archers of a country. A country has the option of switching to their best combination but India opted against it and put up a new pair for the Olympics.
In fact, Deepika also sounded upset at the last-minute change and said it “mattered”. But Gurung, who has worked with Jadhav since his early days at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, maintained that it was an automatic choice.
“I don’t know what she (Deepika) has said… It’s always the highest ranked two players who team up for the mixed pair competition. It was an automatic choice. Won’t it be hurting to leave someone out despite topping for us. We didn’t want to play with his career.
