Jayanta Talukdar (extreme left) and Deepika Kumari at the felicitation in Jamshedpur on Tuesday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

They bowed out of the world’s greatest sporting extravaganza, but are now back home with an honest autopsy of defeat.

Archers Jayanta Talukdar and Deepika Kumari, addressing newsmen on Tuesday at the VIP hall of JRD Tata Sports Complex in Jamshedpur as part of a felicitation hosted by Tata Steel, admitted the Indian squad “mentally lost the Olympic battle”.

It was a brave admission for the duo in front of their home crowd, disappointed at their poor show during London Olympics in both team and individual recurve events.

“Wind wasn’t the main hurdle. It was the huge crowd that proved to be our nemesis. I think it affected Deepika the most as she is just 18,” Jayanta, routed in the men’s individual opening round, said, adding that Archery Association of India (AAI) should rope in a sports psychologist.

Jayanta, a former Tata Archery Academy cadet and an officer with Tata Steel sports department, rued they lacked confidence, which led to their rout. “Nobody likes to lose. But one has to be very confident in the Olympics.”

He added the men’s outfit, which included Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee, got viral fever in London.

“We could not practise for 4-5 days. I was so weak that I wasn’t able to properly pull the string of my bow. Deepika had a mild fever,” Jayanta said, adding the national camp at the SAI Eastern Centre (in Calcutta) had not helped.

“Heat and humidity affected archers. It would have helped had the AAI shifted the camp elsewhere. We gained immensely when the camp was in Gangtok. It helped the men’s team do well at the World Cup, Ogden, which led us to qualify for the Olympics,” the Guwahati-based archer said.

Deepika, who spoke less, conceded that Indian archers lacked confidence.

“Hammein atma vishwas ki kami thi. Hum is mamle mein kafi peechey hain (We lacked self-confidence. We are way behind in this),” Deepika, the only Indian archer to qualify for World Cup finals in China next month, said.

Purnima Mahto, Indian women’s team coach at the Olympics, agreed that crowd pressure was “immense” at the historic Lord’s.

Tata Steel vice-president Sanjiv Paul urged them to look ahead. “Winning and losing is part and parcel of sports,” he said.

Chin up, Golden Girl, China is calling.