New Delhi [India], April 19 : Archery Association of India (AAI) has appointed South Korea's Baek Woong Ki as head coach for Indian recurve archers ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The 61-year-old Woong Ki was previously associated with his country's team. The team won two gold medals for women's recurve archery at individual and teams events at the London 2012 Olympics.
Woong Ki is the first fulltime foreign coach since 2014 Asian Games for India when a foreign coach was hired for Asian Games. Earlier, he was part of the coaching team at Sports Authority of India's Centre of Excellence in Sonipat, as per Olympics.com.
At present, Woong Ki is accompanying the Indian team at Archery World Cup 2023 Stage 1 in Antalya, Turkey.
Apart from Woong Ki, Italy's former world champion Sergio Pagni is also present in Antalya. Currently, Sergio is coaching the Indian compound archery team in Antalya.
The Italian coach has been coaching the Indian compound archery team from the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The Indian archery contingent for Archery World Cup 2023 Stage 1 has eight compounds and eight recurve archers.
Olympians Atanu Das and Tarundeep Rai will spearhead recurve archery and among the compound archers, all eyes will be on world championships silver medallist Jyothi Surekha Vennam.
For the Paris Olympics, the qualification rounds will open in July 2023 for recurve archers. Compound archery is not included in the Olympics.
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