After Cadet World Championship gold, archer Komalika eyes senior-level medal

Archer Komalika Bari has probably received the most precious gift of her life after having clinched the gold medal at the World Youth Archery Championship in Madrid. It was a message from Deepika Kumari which was filled with affection and appreciation. The reason is simple. The ace Indian female archer has been Komalika’s inspiration right from the day she joined the national camp at the Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur. Going by the record books, Komalika's achievement is further special as she became the second recurve archer to become World Cadet Champion after her inspiration Deepika won the laurel for the first time in 2009.

The 17-year old archer returned from Madrid on Tuesday evening. Amid the celebration with her family and coach, Komalika informed The Bridge, “It feels great to see P V Sindhu becoming the World Champion. It is a glorious honour for the country. And like other Indians, I also have been extremely happy with Sindhu’s success. Her achievement motivates the upcoming players like me. I understand, I will also get a similar reception if I can achieve something at the senior level as Deepika received after winning the gold medal in World Cup stage three.”

It was Komalika’s mother, who was fond of archery that led her daughter to pursue this sport from the age of 11. Komalika impressed the coaches in a summer coaching camp organized by IWSC. Then her journey as a dedicated archer began at the Tata Academy in 2016. She recalled, “I was adopted by Tata Academy as a cadet, and my performance started improving. They provided me with all the modern archery equipment. Previously, I had to perform with locally made bow and arrows, which were not up to the competitive standard.”

Komalika attributes her parents and all the national coaches, precisely Purnima Mahato for her success. She pointed out, “Before going to Madrid, my father had advised me just to enjoy the tournament. He repeatedly asked me not to think about the result. It helped me a lot to regain confidence, mentally relaxed and hold nerves.” 

Talking about her national coaches, Komalika explained:

After our failure in the World Championship in the Netherlands in June this year Purnima madam and other national coaches used to motivate us by repeatedly asking us to forget the old failure and look forward. Those words had kept us mentally charged. 

In addition, according to Komalika, the other way of motivating herself was training every day with Deepika Kumari in the camp. She exclaimed, “Sometimes Deepika trains in Pune. But after World Championship, I have found her training almost every day in Tata Archery and practising with her is always an experience for me. I get a lot of advice from hern while practising.” 

Komalika’s dream is a medal at the Olympics. But now she will have to go to her village after a couple of days. Her relatives in the village are waiting to give her a grand reception.