Ace-archer Atanu Das eyes fresh start ahead of Asian Games 2022 trials

Ace-archer Atanu Das has consistently strived to raise the standard of archery in India. However, he was dealt with a major jolt, after being dropped from the Sports Ministry's Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) following his lowly-eight placed finish at the national ranking tournament in Hyderabad. 

And even though he cut a sorry figure in the first national tournament in 2022, the Baranagar-archer, believes that it will help him identify his areas of concern and start fresh in a year where the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games qualification are on the cards. 

"Looking to make a fresh start forgetting the previous year. The mistakes that I made in the previous year, I have started to work on them, especially on the mental aspect of the game. We will start with a fresh new mindset," Das told SportzPoint.  

Moreover, there remains no doubt that, in a discipline like archery where podium spots can be decided within fraction of points, it becomes extremely crucial for the archers to maintain their concentration. 

And mental visualisation technique helps to maintain that aptitude. Das also further wants to improve his mental aspects under the guidance of his long-time sports psychologist Mugdha Bavare who is based in Mumbai. 

"We have had a sports psychologist since 2018 and everything is going well. But somehow she couldn't come with us for Tokyo 2020," Das said. 

"Other than that she was with us during other tournaments. We will try to stay in touch for a long-time to upgrade ourselves," he added. 

However, the diet for archers remains a little less restricted as per Das, but he likes to cut short on fatty substances in his routine meal. 

"We have a normal diet which includes avoiding fatty substances. But to maintain fitness and proper body structure we maintain a strict routine with food," Das said. 

It will be up to Das now to recompose himself and make a comeback in the first of three Asian Games 2022 trails slated to run from March 7 to 10 at the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) Eastern Centre in Kolkata.