In what is a big blow to Indian archery team, its trip to Colombia for the World Cup was cancelled after a flight delay.
A seven-member contingent – including three archers – were scheduled to leave for the World Cup on Sunday morning but had to return to their hotels when the KLN Airline staff informed them that they will miss their connecting flights to Medellin, the venue of competition.
The World Cup is a major competition for the archery team as they prepare for the World Championships in June, which will offer Tokyo Olympics quotas.
The original schedule said that the team would leave for Amsterdam at 3:45 am on Sunday, and then catch a flight to Bogota. The journey from Medellin from Bogota was through a domestic flight.
But the flight from New Delhi to Amsterdam was postponed to 4:50 am and the airline staff informed the Indian contingent about the situation. They also offered a new itinerary, which asked all the seven members to leave in different flights. But that would mean that the team land on the day of the event, which is on Wednesday.
At the Colombia World Cup, 189 archers from 35 countries are taking part in the tournament, which offers world ranking points. Deepika Kumari, the defending stage winner in women’s recurve category, was leading a full-strength team from India.
This was the only big competition before the World Championship as the Archery Association of of India selected a second string team for the World Cup in Shanghai next month. This means that Deepika and Co, in all likelihood, will miss that as well. The Indian archers will only have one international meet – the stage three of the World Cup in Antalya next month – for the rest of the year.
