The artless archer is simply focussed on her game“I want to be Sachin of my field”, says Deepika Kumari. Her deep steady eyes dare you to refute her confident words. After all she is just 19 and well Sachin Tendulkar is leagues apart. But former World No.1 and current World No.2 archer Deepaka Kumari, is anything but preposterous. Her confidence—a quality that Meera Munda, wife of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda, was among the first to realise would take her a long way up.
“Though she was a lean and thin girl who could barely hold a bow and an arrow, she was very keen to take admission in the archery institute. I decided to help her even though at the time the coach and teachers were not willing to take her on.” Munda saw in the self-effacing little Deepika the understated can-do in plenty that she would display later.
“No one can rise globally in the field without some special quality. I see in her the single-minded devotion and will power to reach the sky,” says Deepika’s first patron, as she blesses her with “grand success and worldwide achievements”.
When we caught up with Kumari in candid interview between rigorous practice sessions, the intrepid Ranchi girl, who will turn 20 in June, spoke of her transformation from being a bookworm slogging for grades to becoming an ace archer stringing bows and shooting targets, among other things.
“I was among the many girls in India, sincere in studies and wanting to be an ideal daughter,” says the young archer. The humility in her is touching, this, despite the fact that at such a young age awards and accolades have been showered on her, the latest being the tag of the Sportsperson of the Year, awarded by FICCI at India Sports Awards held in February 2014.
Deepika had a normal middle class upbringing with her two siblings, brought up by a father who drove autorickshaw and a homemaker mother. But all this was to change one day in 2007, and since then there has been no looking back.
“It was a chilly winter day in February 2007 when I had my first exposure to archery due to my cousin Deepti, who was an archery student at Tata Archery Academy, Jamshedpur,” Kumari reminisces. That one brush made her realise that archery is what she was meant for. But Deepika had bigger dreams than Deepti’s.
She started her initial training under the mentorship of coach Himanshu in the rural location of Saraikhela Kharsawa in Jharkhand. It was not a smooth sailing though for the little girl. “It was difficult to strike a balance between studies and training. I was in class VII when I began training under Himanshu sir,” recalls the young woman. Her poise today belies the turmoil that she must have undergone as a frail 13-yearold struggling between her school work and practice sessions. “I had to sacrifice my studies to make it big in the sports field,” she reveals. The wunderkind had made a tough choice at a young age. But the gamble paid off when in 2008 she was selected to Tata Archery Academy under the mentorship of Dharmnendra Tiwari.
It was at the academy that she met her other coach Purnima. “We as a team are working day in and out to promote archery in the state, and Deepika is now a role model, not only for the people of the state but India at large,” says Purnima, adding, “My association with Deepika began in 2009 after she joined the academy.”
Looking back at the selection of Deepika in 2008, Purnima says, “Archery is an art and a science, where one needs to have concentration, dedication, a sharp mind and quick decision-making capability. Apart from this, physical fitness requires an appropriate body structure, long hands, fingers of average size a jaw line that should not extend. These are a few minute details which we, as a team of coaches, look for while selecting the players. When we met Deepika in 2008 in a state tournament, we found her fit according to the checklist.”
And the protégé has not disappointed the mentor. “At present 24 players are being trained, but nobody has turned out as competent as Deepika,” says the coach. Though she partly blames the government’s apathy for the lackadaisical state of affairs, it is to Deepika’s credit that she has not followed some other good players who left the state for monetary rewards and jobs.
However, amid all the practice and plays, Deepika’s love for books remained inviolable and she continued her studies. The Arjuna Awardee who was born with a responsible streak and was a dutiful child, completed her elementary education from APEG Residential School in Ranchi. Recently, after establishing a smooth track record in the field of archery, she is back in school to complete her education, enrolling in the Bachelors Degree of Commerce programme at Ranchi University in Jharkhand.
For Deepika life is a balancing act and positioning and concentration are an inevitable part of it, not only as an internationally recognised player but also as an individual. During her initial days at the Tata Archery Academy, the training session stretched to more than seven–eight hours and she was left with no option but to create a balance between her education and passion. She used to practice in the day time and in the evening she would study.
As a player, fitness and health are high priorities in Deepika’s life and mental fitness tops the list as it helps to increase her concentration while playing. Her fitness routine includes stretching and yoga which helps her enhance stamina and provides her with mental peace to perform better on ground.
At present she is preparing for the Olympics and other tournaments like the Asian Games where she might have to face formidable South Koreans and she also has to defend her Commonwealth gold. At the same time, she is working at Tata Steel, Jamshedpur. When asked whether she misses the fun that girls of her age enjoy, she shoots straight, “I don’t think I miss anything, rather, I can say, I enjoy more. Even if I have a scheduled life, it has its own fun and this is what I expected from it.”
It is this sagacity that has shown through her performance on the field. She has shaped her life on and off the field with an iron hand and is now preparing to write history in all earnest. No wonder, it all started rather young for determined Deepika. At age 15 she won gold medal in the 11th Youth World Archery Championship held in Ogden, USA in 2009, and the success run continued—in seven successive tournaments she was among the top 10. In 2010, she raked in two gold medals at Delhi Commonwealth Games 2010, her first senior international title among it that she won after defeating five-time Olympian Alison Williamson of Great Britain. Deepika was the first archer in India to capture the sub-junior, junior and senior national titles in a single year.
In 2011, she finished second in the World Cup final and clinched the gold at the World Archery Youth Championships again. The failure at London Olympics in 2012 thus came hard but the champion is now stronger from that blow and she is readying to take on 2016 Rio Olympics and rightfully earn her medals.
“A career in the field of archery requires concentration, hard work and dedication,” says Deepika, who has displayed plenty of these. It requires some mettle to be able to shoot more than 300 arrows in a day—physical strength and mental toughness. It was a gust of wind (windy weather conditions) that had done her in the 2012 Olympics, and a wiser Deepika is now working up her strengths to combat it.
The archer is also keen to promote the sport. She also speaks of the necessity of infrastructure for archery to flourish as a sport. “I am hopeful that the state government will try to understand the scope of the sport and the initiative the field provides to the youths and will start supporting and promoting archery. Funds are needed to hire the best coaches for training aspirants in this field.” Her younger sister too is keenly pursuing training at Tata Archery Academy and Deepika believes she too will create a new history in field.
The top-ranked woman recurve archer has big ambitions and dreams of a huge gold catch in the upcoming Olympic Games. To achieve her dreams and walk that extra mile in career, Kumari feels one needs to rise above societal pressures and expectations. “It is essential to keep the public pressure to perform at bay and for this psychological training is needed.” Experts say there are barely 20 seconds between each shot in games and an archer needs to forget all distractions, even her opponent and concentrate only on target. That’s what Deepika is doing—aiming for the big haul.
It is Deepika’s mental training till date that has helped her give her best shot. Recalling her first success she says “It is difficult to put in words the proud moment of singing the National Anthem, holding the gold medal and saluting the national flag on an international land.”
A true-born Jharkhandi, she is proud of her tribal identity and is happy to be associated with her homeland. She plans to pay back to the state by establishing a fullfledged archery academy in the state of Jharkhand where all aspiring youths can learn the art of archery and take it higher at the global level.
Looking ahead, the gentle and soft-spoken archer is focussed: “For me archery is my life and I never look beyond that, because it comprises all shades of happiness. The sport is my strength. My goal is to be Sachin of my field, and it will be done only when I let my weaknesses turn into my strengths, and I think somewhere down the line I have succeeded and have realised the importance of positivity and sportsmanship.”