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Deepika Kumari – A girl from Ranchi who made India proud in the world of Archery !!

Swati Singh
Deepika Kumari from Ranchi, Jharkhand made India proud in the world of Archery.

Deepika Kumari was born at Ratu Chati village which is 15 km away from Ranchi. In her childhood, she practiced the skill of archery while aiming for mangoes with stones. In the early days it was difficult for the parents to support Deepika’s dream financially, so Deepika practiced archery by using handmade bamboo bows and arrows. Deepika’s cousin Vidya Kumari helped her develop her talent of Archery.

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Image Source – Sportskeeda

She is one of the best Indian women archers who is presently ranked 5th but at a point was number 1 listed archer in the world. She became famous after she won two Gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in Delhi. She succeeded an individual, and team recurves event also.

The dreams of becoming the best archer came into existence when an archery Institute was set up at Kharsawan in Jharkhand by former chief minister’s wife, Meera Munda in 2005. After that, she enrolled at the Tata Archery Institute in Jamshedpur. She returned home with a gap of three years after having won the gold medal at the Cadet WorldChampionship in the year 2009.

By next year she won two gold medals at the Commonwealth games and also qualified for the 2012 London Olympics. She emerged as the winner in the World Cup held in Turkey and became a medal prospect for India at the Olympics.

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Image Source – The National

She also won five silver medals including World Cup and World Championships. She qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics as well, and as the last time, expectations were high from her but again at the big stage she failed to deliver. She though qualified till the round of 16 at the 2016 Olympics. She was awarded Arjuna award in 2012 and Padma Shri in 2016.

Here are 5 facts you did not know about Deepika Kumari:-

  • She was born on June 13, 1994, in Ranchi.

  • The Archery expert became the 2nd  Indian to win the title after Palton Hansda won the junior compound competition at the 2006 Archery World Cup in Mérida, Mexico.

  • At the age of 15,  she won the 11th Youth World Archery Championship held in Ogden.

  • Netflix made a documentary on Deepika Kumari ‘Ladies First’ for worldwide streaming by Netflix on 8 March 2018, International Women’s Day. She is also set to make her acting debut with a lead role in a movie on witch hunting – ‘Bisahi.’

  • She won a gold medal in the in the women’s recurve event at the World Cup in stage 3 at the 2018 World Cup in Salt Lake City.

So that’s why Deepika Kumari is the best woman archer India ever found.