India's youngest Arjuna awardee, world record holder Jyothi Surekha's inspiring journey in World C'ships

The 25-year-old Vijayawada lass has silently been creating milestones years after years. This time around, Surekha won a silver in the compound women's individual final after losing to Sara Lopez of Colombia. The last silver medal came after she won two silver in the compound women's team and compound mixed team events. This was the Indian's sixth medal from the event.

At the competition in Yankton, she paired up with Abhishek Verma as a mixed team, and in the women's team event, she shared the success with Muskar Kirar and Priya Gurjar.

One of the reasons why Surekha's achievements have not received the limelight in recent history is that compound archery is not a part of the Olympics, which draws the entire world's attention.

A computer engineer, Surekha is the youngest recipient of the Arjuna Award now and has now won six (4 silver, 2 bronze) world championships medals in her bag.

She had won silver in the women's team event at the 2017 world championships and two bronze medals (women's team and women's individual) at the 2019 World Championships.

Born in July 1996, Surekha's introduction to the world of sports began at the tender of three, when she took up swimming. In a span of just a year, she swam a distance of 5 km across the Krishna river and earned her name in the Limca Book of Records in 2002 as the youngest swimmer to cross the river at the age of four years and 11 months.

Surekha picked up archery at 11 and has been representing India for the last 12 years in 40 tournaments, including five world championships, two Asian Games, 19 world cups, five Asian championships, three Asia cups, two world university games, one world university championship, one south Asian games, and two junior world championships. She has been trained by coaches J Rama Rao and Jeevan Jyothi Singh Teja