LUCKNOW, May 15 -- Out of the 117 Indian athletes who went to the Paris Olympics last year, only six came back with medals-one silver and five bronze. While it may appear that the contingent put up a disappointing show, Indian archers still managed to record their best finish at the Summer Games. The pair of Dhiraj Bommadevara and Ankita Bhakat made it the mixed team semi-finals-a first for the Indian archery at the Olympics. Despite the duo losing the semis, the subsequent bronze medal match and the fourth spot, India still recorded its best result at the Games. Can India ever win an archery medal at the Olympics? Ask this to Arjuna and Dronacharya awardee Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, a pioneer of Indian compound archery, and he will promptly say, "Yes, it's possible." The reason behind his answer is the induction of compound archery in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. Sanjeeva has already begun working on his trainees at the Sanjeeva Singh Archery Institute (SSAI) in Deoria, almost 350 kilometers away from the state capital. Within a few months of establishing his institute, with the support of several organisations, under their CSR scheme, SSAI's efforts have now begun to bear fruits. One of his trainees, Manav Jadhav has won two gold medals, in the individual and mixed team event of the compound section, at the ongoing Khelo India Youth Games in Bihar. The youngster has scored a record and impressive 713/720 points. "It's my dream to see an Indian archer win an Olympic medal. I am sure that now my dream will come true soon as the International Olympic Committee has introduced compound archery in the 2028 Olympics," said Sanjeeva, whose institute is committed to produce world-class archers for the 2032 and 2036 Olympics through a structured 10,000-hour skilling framework. "My institute integrates elite coaching, sports science, and high-performance training methodologies, ensuring young athletes receive world-class preparation. We also provide state-of-the art training facilities, video analysis technology, strength and conditioning programmes, and mental coaching for holistic development of our athletes," he added. "As part of the development of archery in India, especially in UP's Purvanchal, we have selected six boys and six girls for the first phase of our training programme... we have set aside 10,000 hours of curriculum, which is outside school syllabus, to prepare the champions of tomorrow, who will win medals at the 2036 Olympics," he said. So far, archery has featured only recurve since its re-inclusion in the Olympics in Munich 1972. The 2028 Games will have a mixed-team compound archery event along with the other five existing recurve events. Sanjeeva, who recently retired as the 'high-performance director' of Archery India, praised the IOC for the induction of compound archery in 2028 Olympics. "People used to laugh at me when I started compound archery in 2004 as they thought that it has no future." "Since then, we have come a long way in compound archery, winning multiple medals including gold at the Asian Games, World Cups and other international events. However, till you get Olympic recognition, it is mostly sidelined," he said. He also said that compound archery suited Indians better for their smaller physique. "I feel that this is one game where Indians can go very high. It creates good opportunity for Indian archers because they have smaller physique." He, however, said that the Olympics was a different ball game as several countries would focus more on compound archery. "It's not going to be easy for India, but not impossible as well," he said....