Back home,Deepika triggers a change

The Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur,of which Deepika is an alumna,has recorded an increase in the number of enquiries from parents,who are based in towns,interested in knowing more about the sport,which has been dominated by tribals and those from rural areas.

Deepika is from Jharkhand and an alumna of the Tata Archery Academy so she has helped generate much more interest in the sport. She is popular because people here consider her their very own as she is tipped to win an Olympic medal and has trained in her home state, Dharmendra Tiwary,chief coach at the Tata academy,said.

While tribals have largely been drawn to the sport,Deepikas achievements have caught the attention of people from urban areas too. Medals,recognition and money is what Deepika has earned. It has made people sit up and take notice, Tiwary added.

M Ramesh,a trainee at the academy for close to four years,said that things changed after Deepika won medals.

Earlier,most of the trainees were from rural backgrounds and they turned to archery as a way to get out of poverty. Now,there are urban youngsters who want to get into the sport. We have three such trainees now, said Ramesh,the son of marginal farmers from Warangal in Andhra Pradesh.

Traditionally,archery has been dominated by those from rural areas and coaches have found them ideal because of their robustness and willingness to work hard . But the changes are there to see. At the ongoing National Games,there are a large number of archers who hail from cities. Hemanta Basumatary is the son of a mid-level government official from Assam,while Delhis Abhishek Verma doesnt struggle to make both ends meet. And they too now draw inspiration from Deepika.

Finishes with silver

On Thursday though,Deepika suffered a minor reverse when she lost the gold to Assam’s Prativa Boro 2-3 in the individual recurve event final. This result was just one in the series of shocking results in the competition when India’s main archers Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai,Mangal Singh Champia and Jhanu Hansda all returned empty-handed.

The mens individual recurve gold medal went to West Bengal’s M R Tirkey who got the better of SSCB’s Vishwas 3-2. Sanjay Boro of Assam bagged the bronze medal.

In the compound individual event,Sunita Rani of Punjab and Abhishek Verma of Delhi defeated V Jyothi Surekha and Ritul Chatterjee,both of Andhra Pradesh in the women and men’s events to claim the gold medal.

Namita Yadav of Jharkhand defeated Punjab’s Rupinder Kaur and C Srither (SSCB) got the better of Rajasthan’s Nand Kishor Rawat to claim bronze in the women and mens events.