Hitting the Bull’s Eye!!

It is very heartening to see the success of so-called small town girls and boys. I born in a metropolitan city but brought up in a small town like Jammy. With loads off desire we hardly had any facilities in our epoch but it is true that if you are determine to ascend then every obstacle turned to a cakewalk. The hard work and achievement of Deepika Kumari fit the bill on that context.

Deepika Kumari

Deepika Kumari was born to Shivnarayan Mahato, an auto-rickshaw driver and Geeta Mahato, a nurse in Ranchi Medical College. In the early days it was rather difficult for the parents to financially support Deepika's dream, often compromising on the family budget to buy her new equipment for her training. But the young gutsy archer never gave up and started her practice with bamboo made bows and arrows. Finally it was Deepika's cousin Vidya Kumari, also an archer at Tata Archery Academy, who showed her the way.

Deepika got her first breakthrough in 2005 when she entered Arjun Archery Academy, an institute set up by Meera Munda, wife of Chief Minister Arjun Munda at Kharsawan. But her professional archery journey begun in the year 2006 when she joined the Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur. It was here that she started her training with proper equipment and uniform. She also received Rs 500 as stipend.

Deepika become the second Indian to win the title after Palton Hansda won the World champion at Mexico in 2006 by winning the junior compound individual gold medal.

In May 2012, Deepika Kumari won her first World Cup individual recurve gold medal at Antalya, Turkey. She beat Korea's Lee Sung Jin by six set points to four in the final. Later in the year 2012 she became world no.1 in the Women's Recurve Archery.

Having lost her third title clash in just concluded World cup and it was as many years at the World Cup Finals, archer Deepika Kumari has been forced to look for reasons within. And the 19-year-old admitted that she lost the latest battle in Paris more in the mind than anything else. 

“Archery is a mind game. It is all about how strong you are mentally. In major competitions, being tough makes a big difference. It would be great if we could have a sports psychologist with us,” she said at a felicitation function here on Tuesday. 

Records and Achievements

Present World Ranking		2
Highest World Ranking		1
World Cup
Silver	2011 Istanbul		Individual
Silver	2012 Tokyo		Individual
Silver	2013 Paris		Individual
Commonwealth Games
Gold	2010 Delhi		Recurve individual
Gold	2010 Delhi		Recurve team
Asian Games
Bronze	2010 Guangzhou		Recurve team

!!!Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible - Albert Einstein!!!