'Grave injustice': Mangal Singh Champia deserved to go to Rio Olympics, says Limba Ram

Kolkata: Former Olympian and chief coach Limba Ram on Friday said that the Archery Association of India (AAI) has done ‘grave injustice’ to Mangal Singh Champia who grabbed an individual Olympic quota but was pipped by young Atanu Das to make the team to Rio.

“Mangal deserved to have gone to Rio. He earned you the quota. It’s grave injustice to him,” Limba, who is now a sports officer in Rajasthan Government, told PTI from Dungarpur.

“I feel sad for him. He did not have any support and missed out on Olympics. His experience would have come handy.”

Mangal had earned the individual quota in the World Championship in Copenhagen in 2015 but the AAI picks the one who’s ahead in current form.

After the trio of Champia and Jayanta Talukdar failed to earn a team berth at the World Cup Stage III in Antalya, the AAI in its trial in SAI Bengaluru picked the 24-year-old Kolkata lad for his maiden Olympics.

Das had a bonus point advantage having made the semifinals in the World Cup in Antalya as he easily made the cut.

But Limba said the rule can be altered if they want a particular archer.

“I’m sure if it was someone else, they would not have conducted a trial,” he said about the Jharkhand archer who is a four-time World Cup gold medalist in team events.

Incidentally on current form, 13th ranked Talukdar is the best among the Indian men’s trio as Atanu is 22nd while Mangal has a poor ranking of 33.

“You always go through ups and down. You should always back your athlete if he’s not doing well. Mangal also needed some support. He would have peaked at the right time.”

But an AAI official said that the selection process was fair enough and Das was the deserving candidate.

“Das is the best Indian male archer at the moment. AAI always selects on basis of a trial, it was no different this time.”