India’s archers have enjoyed considerable success on the international circuit, winning medals at continental championships, World Cups and world championships. Yet, the Olympic stage remains a different challenge. For the Archery Premier League (APL), bridging that gap is the central objective, and its organisers believe the league is beginning to move Indian archery in the right direction.
The second season of the APL in Hyderabad offered Indian archers more than an opportunity to compete for their respective franchises. It brought them alongside some of the world’s best archers, introduced a faster competitive format and tested their ability to perform under challenging conditions.
Speaking exclusively to IndiaToday.in, APL chairman and director Anil Kamineni explained the thinking behind the league, recalling the question that prompted its creation.
“We have been winning medals everywhere except at the Olympics. What is it that we are not doing right?” Kamineni recalled asking.
“We analysed the situation and found that several other sporting disciplines had benefited from having leagues of their own. We also noticed an improvement in athletes’ performances in those sports. So we thought, ‘Okay, let’s start our own league.’”
The league was conceived as an attempt to address that gap, drawing on the success of franchise-based competitions in other sports and creating a different competitive environment for archery.
LEARNING FROM THE BEST
One of the APL’s central objectives is to bring leading international archers into the same competition as India’s top performers. For younger Indian athletes, competing alongside established names offers an opportunity to observe how elite competitors approach the sport, from their shooting routines to their handling of pressure.
The exchange goes both ways. Kamineni said international archers had also spoken positively about competing alongside athletes from different countries, creating opportunities for learning across the field.
The league has also brought recurve and compound archers together in the same competition. The two disciplines generally operate in separate competitive environments, but the APL has created opportunities for athletes to interact and compete as teammates.
The mixed-discipline format is another attempt to broaden the sport’s appeal while bringing together athletes who might otherwise have limited opportunities to share a competitive environment.
FIVE SECONDS LESS
The APL has also changed the pace of competition. Its format gives each team 120 seconds to shoot eight arrows in a set, working out to an average of 15 seconds per arrow. That is five seconds less than the conventional 20-second allowance per arrow in standard team formats.
The shorter window demands quicker decisions. Archers must assess the conditions, settle into position and execute their shots without allowing the pressure of the clock to disrupt their accuracy.
Kamineni said the change was introduced to encourage archers to establish their rhythm and focus more quickly.
“What we have observed is that some archers who shoot faster are performing well. Others tend to take more time, but that can affect the team. They are beginning to realise this and are improving their pace accordingly,” he said.
The format also places greater emphasis on collective performance. Each team fields four archers, one man and one woman in both recurve and compound, meaning individual routines must fit within the demands of the team contest.
The challenge is to find a balance between speed and precision, particularly when a team’s overall performance depends on all four archers delivering under pressure.
WHEN THE PRESSURE BUILDS
The conditions in Hyderabad added another layer to the competition. With the range situated beside Hussain Sagar Lake, natural winds periodically made shooting difficult. On the penultimate day, intermittent gusts provided a particularly stern test.
Wind is an unavoidable factor in outdoor archery, but changing conditions require athletes to assess the breeze and make adjustments without losing consistency. In Hyderabad, those decisions had to be made within the APL’s tighter time window.
The league’s hit-or-miss shoot-off offered another test of composure. When matches were tied at 4-4, archers had to hit a designated spot on the target to register a hit, with sudden death used if the teams remained level. Unlike conventional scoring, the shoot-off reduced the outcome to a distinction between a hit and a miss, leaving little room for error.
Star recurve archer Dhiraj Bommadevara experienced the pressure first-hand on the final day of the league. Competing for the Mighty Marathas in the first qualifier against the Kakatiya Knights, the 25-year-old had a moment to forget, shooting an eight with his final arrow when his team was in a position to secure victory.
The Knights capitalised on the opening to win the contest through the Shortcut Decider, leaving the Marathas to fight their way back through the eliminators.
For any athlete, such a costly error could prove difficult to shake off, particularly with a place in the final at stake. Bommadevara, however, responded emphatically. He helped the Marathas navigate the second eliminator and return to the final, where he shot 79 out of a possible 80 points and delivered the winning arrow.
The turnaround offered a compelling illustration of the composure required in the APL’s high-pressure format. Rather than allowing one poor shot to define his day, Bommadevara recovered to produce a decisive performance when his team needed it most.
One performance cannot establish that the league has improved an athlete’s mental game. But his response demonstrated the importance of recovering from mistakes and maintaining focus when the next opportunity arrives, qualities that matter well beyond a franchise competition.
THE NEXT GENERATION
Kamineni was particularly encouraged by the performances of younger Indian archers during the league. He pointed to a 16-year-old competitor who had impressed him, alongside the performances of Kumkum Mohod, 17, and Chikita, 20, at the Asian Games.
“I am very impressed with what I have seen. We have a 16-year-old who is shooting amazingly well, along with several other young archers,” he said.
The APL selects its Indian participants on the basis of their performances in national selection trials, with the top nine archers chosen for the respective teams. This gives leading domestic performers a platform to compete alongside international stars while placing younger athletes in a demanding team environment.
Kamineni believes the early signs have been encouraging. He pointed to India’s performances at the Asian Championships, Asian Games, World Cups and World Championship finals as evidence of the progress being made by Indian archers.
“We have already seen the impact within just a couple of months of our APL season. At the Asian Championships, our archers performed exceedingly well, and that momentum continued at the Asian Games, the World Cups and the World Championship finals, where they won gold medals,” he said.
Those results offer grounds for optimism, although the league’s direct contribution to them is difficult to establish on the basis of performances alone. India’s archery development depends on a wider ecosystem of coaching, training, selection and international competition, and the APL is one part of that process.
The league’s ambition, however, is clear. It aims to give Indian archers a more demanding competitive environment while bringing international talent and different disciplines together under one format.
India has demonstrated its ability to win medals across the international circuit. The challenge is to translate that success onto the Olympic stage. Whether the APL can help bridge that gap will depend on how its format and experiences translate into sustained performances when the stakes are highest.
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