Gold-medal winning archery team come home to drab welcome

The triumphant Indian women’s recurve team, which clinched the World Cup Stage IV crown in Poland, returned home in the wee hours on Tuesday to a lukewarm response. The archery team, comprising Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari (in pic) and Rimil Buriuly, were later felicitated at the resident of President of Archery Association of India (AAI), VK Malhotra. The archers were, however, a little disappointed that no top officials had come to receive them at the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi. [caption id=“attachment_1064281” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The archers were a little disappointed that no top officials had come to receive them at the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi. PTI[/caption] “We are a bit disappointed. If we compare with other sports, there are lot of people receiving the players at the airport. This is a very big achievement, we defeated Korea. It would have been great had we received a big welcome but its okay our job is to do better and we will do it,” Rimil said. Malhotra, who is also the acting president of Indian Olympic Association (IOA), praised the women archers for their winning effort. “It is a great effort by the archers. They have made India proud,” Malhotra said. The senior BJP leader, however, said that they wanted the team to get all the attention and so no top official had gone to receive them at the airport. “We were having the welcome lined up for the team at my residence. Also the trainers had accompanied the team. I didn’t want only the officials to be shown on the channels. It should be the archers only, it is their day,” Malhotra said. Asked about rewards, Malhotra said: “That will be discussed with the federation.” The Indian women’s recurve team on Sunday had defeated the formidable South Koreans, comprising – Yun Ok-hee, Ki Bo-bae, and Joo Hyun-jung – 219-215 to clinch the World Cup Stage IV crown in Poland. It was the Indian women’s second consecutive World Cup title, following their success in Medellin (Colombia) last month. PTI