Kumkum Mohod’s father makes mithai boxes. On Friday, he was ordering sweets in bulk for history-making daughter

On Friday morning at the Okazaki Central Park Multipurpose Square in Japan, the Indian team was tied 2-2 after the second set (each set fetches two points), before they won the fourth and tied the fifth to win the title with a sensational 5-2 score, a first in India’s history.

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The Koreans had in their midst, Tokyo Olympics team gold medallist and reigning world champion Kang Chae-young, Oh Ye-jin and Lee Yunji. The South Korean women are a juggernaut in the women’s archery team event in particular. At the Paris 2024 Olympics, they won their 10th consecutive women’s team gold at the Olympics, a record that stretches back to Seoul 1988.

And now, 28-year-old Ankita, 17-year-old Kumkum and 19-year-old Kirti had shattered that myth of Korean invincibility.

The call to the sweet shop is also a ritual now for Anil. Each time his daughter makes the family proud, he dials the same sweet shop to place an order. He did it after Kumkum and the Indian team won the women’s team gold at the Archery World Cup Stage 2 in Shanghai — India’s first women’s team gold since 2021 — earlier this year. He did it after Kumkum punched her ticket to the Asian Games in a keenly-contested trial in Sonepat.

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“With every medal or selection, I have to call my old clients to order sweets,” Anil had told The Indian Express in May this year.

Kumkum’s initiation in the sport was in 2018, when she got her hands on her first wooden bow bought by the Rs 3,000 given by her grandmother Kusum. Soon she was training under coach Prafull Dange in Amravati.

Kumkum Mohod with parents Anil Mohod and Rupali Mohod. (Special Arrangement)

A silver in sub-junior nationals six months later followed before Kumkum’s father would get her a second hand bow. “A relative’s daughter had started archery when Kumkum too wanted to try. My mother gave her the money to get her the bow and initially she would go in a shared auto with other children to train at the academy,” Anil shares with The Indian Express.

Later, as other children moved on from the sport, Anil would take time out from his mithai box-making shop to ferry her to training. “We got her a second-hand bow later with whatever savings we had and Kumkum would always tell me that whether an old bow or new, it’s one’s courage that matters. Today she has shown that to the world,” says Anil.

“Last year, around same time I had told my father that I will not be sitting at home next year. I will be at Asian Games. Because back home we have a very big Janmasthami festival around this time. I told him next year don’t expect me to be home.”