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Archery

Pravin Jadhav shines bright among Indian archers in Tokyo Olympics so far

Archer Pravin Jadhav might have failed to earn a podium finish at the Tokyo Olympics, but has surely left the mark.

Pravin Jadhav Archery Tokyo Olympics
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Archer Pravin Jadhav at Tokyo Olympics (Source: Hindustan Times)

By

Abhijit Nair

Updated: 28 July 2021 11:14 AM GMT

Archer Pravin Jadhav might have failed to earn a podium finish at the Tokyo Olympics, but has surely left the mark.

Pravin went into the quadrennial event without much fanfare, and with all the focus in archery on the husband-wife duo of Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari, the 25-year-old has emerged as a star.

Hailing from a frequently drought-hit village in the state of Maharashtra, Pravin Jadhav comes from a not so sound financial background. In fact, he could not afford two meals a day at some point in his life and had almost joined his father as a daily wage labourer.

Having seen such grave hardships early on in his life, Pravin's rise to the top is certainly inspiring.

Going into the Olympics, not much was expected of Jadhav. He was only about to make his first appearance at the Games, while the other two men – Atanu Das and Tarundeep Rai already had experienced the Olympic pressure before.

The experienced men were expected to shine, while Pravin remains an understudy.

But, Jadhav had other ideas.

First, he topped the Men's individual ranking rounds among the Indians. He finished at the 31st position with a score of 656, much ahead of Das and Rai, who finished 35th and 37th, respectively.

With this show, Pravin forced his way into the Mixed Recurve team to pair up with Deepika Kumari.

It was unexpected, at least amongst the Indian fans and media, who expected Deepika to pair up with her husband, Atanu. It made sense as well since the duo had just recently won the World Cup gold in Paris.

After going as far as the quarterfinal in the mixed event alongside Deepika, Jadhav turned up for the men's team event.

While Tarundeep Rai faltered a bit in the pre-quarterfinals against Kazakhstan, and Atanu Das failed spectacularly in the quarterfinal against South Korea in men's team event, Jadhav stood tall.

Yes, there were occasional bad shots, but he was still quite clearly visible as the most assured of the three Indian men.

If Pravin had not exceeded the expectations of fans already, he went one step further in the men's individual event.

Up against the world number 2 from the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), Galsan Bazarzhapov, in the very first round, Pravin displayed his class to knock out the Russian without dropping a set and advance to the round of 32.

The round of 32 was a bit too tough for Jadhav's liking as he fell to a defeat to the world number 1 from the USA, Brady Ellison.

This brought down curtains on Pravin Jadhav's campaign at the Tokyo Olympics. Though he did not manage to win any medal, the youngster has surely stood out as a shining light in an otherwise gloomy stint in Tokyo for the Indians.


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