JOIN USDeepika Kumari’s short international career has seen significant highs and lows. From the high of World No 1 ranking in 2012 to a dismal performance at the London Olympics, the 20-year-old archer from Ranchi has been through all.
Smartened up with these experiences and relieved with the return of her old form, Deepika is now eyeing the Asian Games with fresh vigour and enthusiasm.
The three-time World Cup Final silver-medallist has been peaking before the Incheon Games as she led Indian women recurve archers to gold medal in World Cup Stage IV in Wroclaw, Poland, besides clinching bronze medals in recurve women's individual event and recurve mixed team pair event.
Deepika, who is now training with her old coach Dharmendra Tiwary, also India coach, said she was working on fine-tuning her techniques.
“I have regained my form recently. But there are still some techniques I need to improve on. I have been working on it with Dharmendra sir,” Deepika said on the sidelines of official send-off of Samsung Sports Ratnas for Asian Games on Thursday. She is among the 12 athletes picked for Samsung Sports Ratnas.
“We are well prepared. In fact, we are leaving for Korea tonight (Thursday) so that we can acclimatise to the weather conditions there. All the Asian teams are very strong, so the key will be to stay calm, confident and focus on each arrow during the competition.”
Deepika said her recent good run of form has given her the much needed confidence ahead of the Asian Games. “When we win a tournament after going through a rough patch, that confidence stays with us for a long time. I hope this confidence helps me in the Asian Games. In London Games, I learnt how to handle the crowd. That was a big challenge for me. Also I worked on one-on-one matches which also helped me to cope up with the pressure situations.”
For 55kg women wrestler Babita, who won gold in Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Asian Games would be a stronger test. “Asian wrestling is very tough, especially in women. I am competing in Asian Games for first time and I know that I will have to perform better than the CWG. We are practising keeping in mind that we will have to fight with quality Japanese and Chinese wrestlers, who are very quick.”
Samsung Sports Ratna athletes: for 17th Asian Games: Shooting: Manavjit Sandhu, Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang, Malaika Goel. Wrestlers: Yogeshwar Dutt, Vinesh Phogat, Babita Kumari. Boxing: Devendro Singh, Mary Kom. Badminton: PV Sindhu, P Kashyap. Archery: Deepika Kumari.