CWG discard Champia vows to come back with a bang

Kolkata: Indian archer Mangal Singh Champia is down but not out. The only archer to have represented India at the Beijing Olympics in the men`s section, Champia narrowly missed the cut for the three-member team at the Commonwealth Games to be held in the capital from October 3-14.Having lost out in the trials by just two points, Champia`s dream to represent the country at the CWG was shattered but as a saving grace he figured in the Asian Games team that has four members. Talking to reporters, the Jharkhand archer, who ranked second in the Beijing Olympics qualifying round, said he was very disappointed but it`s not the end of the world for him. With World Cup Stage IV (beginning in Shanghai on August 31) and Asian Games in Guangzhou (November) coming up, he feels he has a lot of events up in his sleeve. "Obviously, it was really a big shock to not see your name in the Indian team for CWG despite being a regular for last three years," Champia lamented. "This is a part and parcel of every sport person`s life. And in a precision sport like archery, the margin of error is very less as what happened with me. I hope this will motivate me to work harder and come back stronger," Champia said before leaving for Shanghai. Champia`s loss was Tarundeep Rai`s gain as the Services archer recovered from a shoulder injury to make a grand comeback this year. Rai along with Jayanta Talukdar and Rahul Banerjee will spearhead India`s challenge in the men`s recurve section at the CWG. "Yes, there`s a lot of emotions involved and your fellow players miss you when you are not part of the team. But the fact is I missed out because of my performance and I have to come back," said the 2009 Arjuna awardee. The 27-year-old Railways archer said recently he had changed his bow that could have been one of the reasons for missing out. "It takes sometime to acclimatise to a new equipment that I had changed recently. As for performance, I am not way down. Few points mattered," he said. PTI