Over a year ago, at the 2024 Paris Games, Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara had landed on the most wretched place to be in the Olympics. Fourth. In a blink of an eye, hope had turned to heartbreak.
To overcome that, Bhakat, 27, and Bommadevara , 24, took entirely different approaches. While Bhakat tried to wipe the slate clean and forget past misadventures, Bommadevara held on to that pain, using it as a fuel to pursue his dreams. Both of them found redemption in some degree last week as they became the first from the country to win women’s and men’s individual recurve titles at the Asian Archery Championships held in Dhaka.
India ended South Korea’s reign at the top of the medals table with a tally of 10 medals: six gold, three silver and one bronze. The men’s recurve team also wrested back the title, with Rahul Pawariya, Atanu Das and Yashdeep Sanjay Bhoge winning a gold for India for the first time since 2007.
“This is a big breakthrough,” says Tarundeep Rai, 41, who has competed in four Olympics for India. “Over the last few years, we have seen compound archers win medals by the bucketload in big events. Recurve archers were winning few and far between, but not enough to keep India happy. Ankita and Dhiraj winning individual golds is one the biggest achievements I have seen in Indian archery. It is the spark of inspiration we were looking for.”
As Rai says, Indian compound archers have consistently done well at major events. But recurve hits differently. That’s the form of archery that enjoys top Olympic billing. Long considered one of India’s strongest suits at the Olympics, archery has yet not yielded any medals. In fact, Bommadevara and Bhakat’s fourth-place finish was the closest India has ever got to the podium.
PUSHING THROUGH THE PAIN
Making an Olympic debut in Paris, Bommadevara discovered just how fine the margins on that stage are. While Bhakat and Bommadevara lost 2-6 to the US’s Casey Kaufhold and Brady Ellison in bronze medal play-off in the mixed team event, the archer from Vijayawada also fell agonisingly short in the individual event. In the 1/16 elimination round, he faced Canada’s Eric Peters. With nothing to separate them after five sets, the match went into the shoot-off, and despite scoring a 10, Bommadevara lost out because his opponent’s arrow was closer to the centre of the target.
“There was a lot of pain after the Olympics especially when you were so close to the medal but could not win. I can feel every day that I am carrying that pain, carrying that burden,” he had told the media in February, during the National Games in Uttarakhand.
“I am not someone who can ignore things—be it pain or fear. In every competition, practice session with every arrow I shoot, the fourth-place finish at Olympics reminds me that I have to push further not just for myself but also for Indian archery.”
At the 2025 Asian Championships, the country was guaranteed a gold in the men’s individual event as it was an all-Indian final. Bommadevara, who has sprinted up the rankings in India in the last four years, beat 21-year-old Pawariya 6-2 in the finals to become the first non-Korean archer to win the men’s individual gold since 2015.
“Dhiraj has been my training partner for the past five-six years,” adds Rai. “I have seen his highs and lows. Before 2020, he struggled a lot. Despite training very hard, he hadn’t been able to get the breakthrough till 2020. But he didn’t let it break him.
“He never lets the situation get the better of him. Looking at Dhiraj, you don’t know if he’s fire or ice. Even if his arrows are not hitting the mark, he never looks frustrated or nervous or agitated. That is his biggest strength, he knows how to keep his cool. He also has a hunger to do something great. Maybe an Olympic medal, even better, an Olympic gold.”
A NEW BEGINNING
The spectre of Olympics has always haunted India’s recurve archers for over a decade.
For Bhakat, it was a couple of sevens in the bronze medal play-offs that had blotched the historic run. The 27-year-old from Kolkata knew she had to banish the ghosts of the past for any hope of future success. After an uneventful year, she finally seemed to get over the bump at the Asian Championships in Dhaka. Bhakat defeated top-seed Jang Min-hee of South Korea in the quarterfinal and scored a hard-fought shoot-off win over Indian icon Deepika Kumari in the semi-finals.
In the final, she took on Nam Su-hyeon, who had won a silver in the women’s individual event and gold in women’s team event at the Paris Olympics. Even as the Korean piled on the pressure in the second and third set, Bhakat shot four 10s in the last six shots to win 7-3. On the last arrow, she needed an eight or more, and Bhakat confidently stepped up to the podium, and hit a nine.
“At some point, you realise, revisiting the misses makes life worse. I was bored with being miserable,” Bhakat was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. “In the last round I had a couple of 10s and was shooting well. But needed 9 on the final. Of course, I thought of the 7s that had cost us medals. But I simply told myself, ‘No more seven’.”
BREAKING THE SPELL
Even though only on the continental stage, Indian archers had broken through the mental block against the Koreans. Bommadevara and Pawariya also overcame South Korean rivals in their respective semifinals to progress into the title match.
“This is a very significant victory,” says Dola Banerjee, who was part of the bronze medal-winning 2005 team, which won India’s first women’s team event at the Asian Championships. “All these years it seemed like archers from Korea are good at moving on. If they shoot a seven, rather than dwelling on it and jeopardising the set, they would bounce back with a 10 on the next shot. Meanwhile, Indian archers would go in a downward spiral, punishing themselves for one mistake. With this win, hopefully, we have proved that we can keep our cool in the big moments.”
Masters at the precision sport, Korea’s depth in archery is unmatched. Archers coming into the system are not just hard-wired for Olympic success but are trained for every scenario. They build replica venues for the archers to practice in. To prepare for movement and noise in a finals arena, they are made to shoot targets in front of packed football or baseball stadiums during the break.
“We can take a leaf out of their book and train our archers for the big moments,” adds Banerjee, who now runs a coaching academy in Kolkata. “India has won medals at almost every big event now. We have the talent; we have the technique. What’s missing is how we handle the pressure.”
India’s breakthrough success at the Asian Championships may have not only given hope, but a roadmap for the future.
Deepti Patwardhan is a sportswriter based in Mumbai.