NATIONAL, September 7: Compound archer Jyothi Surekha Vennam is heading into her fourth consecutive Asian Games, and this one brings a mix of the familiar and the new. She has won a medal at each of her three previous Asian Games appearances, but this time she will compete alongside an Indian women’s team that is still finding its rhythm together.
With the Asian Games as her only priority this year, Vennam has focused on getting the small things right, both with her equipment and her own preparation. “We are working really hard, preparing ourselves, making sure that everything is good as part of our equipment or be it ourselves and working towards it,” she said.
The demands behind the sport
Archery can look less physically demanding than other sports from the outside, but Vennam says the real test only becomes clear once someone actually picks up a bow.
“Not only archery, like any sport, like when we see or when we watch, when someone is playing, it seems really easy, and it seems like, this is so easy, we also can just do it. But it’s not the case; like every sport has its own things, like some techniques and all. That’s what I believe. And once you start training or once you start, you know, using the equipment and all, then you get to know like how hard it is,” she explained.
Despite carrying medals from all three of her previous Asian Games, the 30-year-old is not letting past results weigh on this campaign. “Right now I’m just focused on giving my best at the games rather than thinking about any other things,” she said.
A new-look women’s team
This year’s Indian women’s compound team is a fresh combination for Vennam. The squad has had two chances to compete together, at World Cup stages three and four, after the Asian Games selection trials wrapped up in May.
“Coming to the team, it’s a new team for us because this is the first time that we got to play as a team, especially for the women’s team, I would like to say. And we have participated in World Cup stages three and four because for us, the games selection trials were completed in May, and we got two tournaments to participate in before the Asian Games. We are improving, we are working hard, and we are getting used to each other. And it’s just that no matter what the situation is, we are there for each other,” she added.
Vennam is among the senior members of the squad, but she does not see experience as resting on one athlete. “I think all the team members are really experienced, I would say, in some sort of things because there’s no one who is representing India in the games for the very first time. Like it’s their first international tournament. They have been part of many international tournaments in previous years and this year too,” she said.
Her own development has come through training at the Inspire Institute of Sport (IIS), where she has shared a high-performance set-up with archers including Rishabh Yadav and Abhishek Verma.
Keeping the target in view
With three Asian Games medals already to her name, Vennam says she stays motivated by resetting her goals for whichever tournament matters most at the time. This year, that answer is straightforward.
“I think the main thing would be just reframing your goals every now and then, depending upon what tournaments you’re playing and what is the tournament that you give the most importance to. This year we only had the Asian Games, which is having the utmost priority. The World Cups happen every year for us. This year it’s Asian Games,” she said.
Vennam now turns her attention to the competition field, aiming to back her preparation with results alongside a women’s team still building its identity together.
