Couple goals: Deepika-Atanu in S Korea to find lost form
Kolkata, November 23
In pursuit of an elusive Olympics medal for India in archery, couple Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das have left their 11-month-old daughter behind to hone their skills under the legendary coach Kim Hyung Tak at a South Korean countryside.
The duo, who have struggled to find their mojo since the Tokyo Olympics, have been camping at the Hyung-Tak Archery Training Centre at Goesan Gun in Chungbuk province in freezing cold conditions since November 11. The aim is to iron out the flaws in one final push before next year’s Olympics.
Having embraced motherhood in December last year, former world No. 1 Deepika is struggling to return to the Indian team.
But even though she has gone through an upheaval, Deepika has not lost form completely. Upon her return at the National Games earlier this month, she secured two gold medals and one team silver.
The two-time Olympian Atanu, who won a team silver at the Asian Games last month, has been in and out of the Indian team and recently failed to qualify for the Olympics-qualifying Asian Championships in Bangkok.
The competition has also become stiff with the rise of a young crop, including Army youngster Dhiraj Bommadevara, who bagged the solitary Olympics quota for the Paris Games.
But for the power couple who once reigned the Indian archery, it is now or never, and they are not ready to give up just yet.
“The hunger and desire to win the elusive Olympics medal is very much intact,” Deepika, who has won every world title except an Olympics medal, said from South Korea.
“I’ve been faltering at crucial moments of a match and his training is quite effective in fixing this and bring about consistency,” she said of training with Hyung Tak.
The final Olympics qualifying event is the World Cup stage 3 in Antalya in June next year, while they can also earn team quotas by virtue of their rankings. The national trial, which is yet to be announced, will determine the Indian probables for the Paris Olympics. — PTI
Busy schedule & harsh conditions
In bone-chilling cold of -2°C, the day begins at 8:30am. Deepika and Atanu train till around 7:30pm with one-hour lunch break in between. “It’s been a crazy schedule and we hardly get time to check phone, but it’s been quite fulfilling,” Atanu said. “Earlier, there would be 8-10 trainees. Now it’s only us, we are getting his full time,” he added. “He’s an ocean of knowledge and every top archer has, at some point, sought his help. His training is very high-tech and effective that primarily focus on maintaining consistency.”
