STRAIGHT ARROW

“She has the inner fire that world champions have. She has everything to beat any archer,” says Viren Rasquinha

if Saina Nehwal has the Chinese to contend with, Deepika Kumari has the South Koreans. At Rio 2016, gone will be the Bagazimuri (a Korean brand) chest guard which Kumari is often spotted wearing at international competitions. Instead, high on Kumari’s mind will be thoughts of becoming the country’s first Olympic medallist in the recurve event. She is better prepared than she was in London in 2012, when as an 18yearold firsttimer she was unable to cope with the wind at Lord’s, or nerves. The stakes, four years later, are higher—Kumari is today the most feted of India’s fourmember archery contingent.

This time around, it’s not a tense teenager but an assured young woman who steps on to the field. Former India hockey captain Viren Rasquinha believes the last Games made her stronger. “There were unrealistic expectations in London. The same mistakes will not be repeated,” he says. Meditation along with yoga has been an integral part of Kumari’s sixhour daily training regimen for the past few years. Apart from working on the mental aspect, Kumari is also stronger physically. Over the last yearandahalf, she has built up her upper body fitness and muscle mass so as increase bow poundage. “It gives her more stability,” says Rasquinha, whose Olympic Gold Quest organised a physical conditioning camp for the archer. “Very few women athletes do it.”

The daughter of an autorickshaw driver and nurse who grew up in a thatched hut in Ratu Chatti, a village 10 km away from Ranchi, Deepika has come a long way from her childhood days when she aimed for ripe yellow mangoes with her handmade bow and arrow. Already a Padma Shri recipient, Deepika comes to Rio with a ranking of 15, eager to make the most of her two chances at getting a medal (she will combine with Bombayla Devi and Laxmirani Majhi in the team recurve event).