Canada's withdrawals will devalue medals: Aussie archery CEO

Melbourne, Sep 24 (IndiaReport)
Archery Australia&aposs CEO Jim Larven today admitted that the withdrawl of two Canadian archers from the Commonwealth Games will boost the home team&aposs prospect but said it would also devalue the medals won in the Delhi mega-event.
Two Canadian archers-Kevin Tataryn and Dietmar Trillus-had withdrawn from the October 3-14 Games citing concerns over health and safety about the athletes&aposvillage and Larven feels it will boost Australia&aposs chances in the Games.
"I think our guys would be disappointed at the fact that all the top guys aren&apost there. There&aposs mixed emotions. In one area we say it makes life a bit easier for us, but on the other hand we wanted to beat them,"Larven was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning herald.
The three Australians in the compound competition are Robert Timms, ranked fifth in the Commonwealth, Pat Coghlan (seventh) and Clint Freeman (ninth).
Compound Archery will make its debut in the Delhi mega-event events and Larven hoped it will prompt the Commonwealth Games federation to include in its calender.
"Despite us being a huge sport in the world, we are not a big sport in the Commonwealth, and the only reason we got into [Delhi] is that the Indians, who are very good at archery, put it in,"Larven said.
"We&aposre hoping that people see how exciting an event it is and how popular it is - because a lot more countries have entered than they thought there would be - and [the Commonwealth Games Federation] then put it on the calendar permanently,"he added.
Larven also hoped a good show by the compound archers team may even impress the IOC to add the sport, alongside the recurve event in the Olympics.