All You Have to Know About World’s No. 1 Archer Deepika Kumari
“I am just happy but at the same time, I have to continue improving as we have some very, very important competitions lined up”, says Deepika Kumari on her win at the World Cup.
Born in a small village, 15 km from Ranchi the ace Indian archer Deepika Kumari created history by winning three gold medals at the Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Paris. With her sensational performance, she reclaimed her World Number 1 ranking for the first time since 2012.
Who is Deepika Kumari?
The 27-year-old Indian archer started her journey at a young age in Tata Archery Academy, Jamshedpur. The institute honed and created a star who is an inspiration to thousands of tribal girls of Jharkhand and millions of young girls around the world.
Ms Kumari shot to fame with her performances at the 2010 Commonwealth Games hosted in Delhi. She won two gold medals, in the individual and the women’s team event. She went on to conquer the world by winning the individual recurve medal at the 2012 World Cup in Turkey.
Her journey in fact started in 2009 when she won the 11th Youth World Archery Championships. With this win, India discovered her very own child prodigy whose potential had no bounds.
World No. 1 Archer
On Monday Deepika Kumari became the world number one as World Archery unveiled its latest rankings. Ms Kumari won gold medals in the recurve women’s team, recurve mixed team and women’s individual recurve events on Sunday to cap off an impressive performance.
This comes as a major confidence booster for the archer who will be the sole woman representing India in Archery in the Tokyo Olympics.
Kumari defeated the Russian, Elena Osipova by 6-0 in a thumping manner.
This is Deepika’s second individual World Cup Gold medal of 2021 and the third gold of the day as she had earlier won gold in the women’s team and mixed team event as well on Sunday.
“I’m happy, but at the same time I have to continue my performance like this,” Kumari was quoted as saying by World Archery’s official website. “I want to improve that, because the upcoming tournament (Tokyo Olympics) is very, very important to us. I’m trying my best to continue learning whatever I can.”
She said that she is looking forward to winning medals in the Tokyo Games.
Olympic Jinx
Despite Deepika’s constant tryst with successes, the Olympics have been jinxed for her, so far. Rising to the top of the world before the 2012 London Olympics, Deepika Kumari had stormed into it with the sole objective of winning but she crashed out in the first round itself. Falling to Britain’s Amy Oliver by six points to two at the majestic Lord’s.
In the 2016 Rio Olympic Deepika rose to the occasion again. She made it till the pre-quarter-finals. Her Chinese opponent Taipei’s Tan Ya-Ting, who was then ranked the World No. 2, gave her a tough fight as she struggled before losing 27-29, 26-29, 27-3.
July 23, the jinx will be broken as the 27-year-old Deepika Kumari will enter the Yumenoshima Park with her heart, mind and soul set on claiming the coveted Olympic medal.
