A product of the Tata Academy in Jamshedpur, the Indian archer, Deepika Kumari has equaled the Women's Recurve Event World Record (WR) at the Archery World Cup 2016 being held in Shanghai, earlier today. The Arjuna Award-winning Indian archer who had a total of 346 out of 360 at the mid-interval, tallied a final score of 686 out of 720 to equal South Korea's Ko Boe Bae's World Record (WR). As the Ranchi girl finished first in the qualifying stage of the 2016 Shanghai Archery World Cup, South Korea’s Jo Areum finished second with a score of 676 while Lisa Unruh of Germany finished third with a score of 672.
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Here are 10 facts that you need to know about the 21-year-old Indian archer, Deepika Kumari:
1) Former World No. 1, Deepika Kumari is currently ranked 7th in the world as per the World Archery Rankings.
2) Deepika Kumari was born on 13 June 1994 to Shivnath Mahato, an auto-rickshaw driver and Geeta Mahato who works as a nurse at the Ranchi Medical College.
3) The 21-year-old Indian archer got her first breakthrough back in 2005 when she enrolled herself at the Arjun Archery Academy, an institute which was set up by Meera Munda, the wife of the former Jharkhand Chief Minister, Arjun Munda.
4) Deepika Kumari started her professional archery career in the year 2006 when she decided to join the Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur. It was here that she got an access to proper archery equipment and uniforms for the first time in her life, along with a monthly stipend of Rs. 500.
5) The 21-year-old became the second Indian archer to win the Cadet World Archery Championship title back in 2009. Previously, Palton Hansda was the only Indian to have clinched the title when she won the same in Merida (Mexico) back in 2006.
6) Deepika Kumari won the 11th Youth World Archery Championship that was held in Ogden City, Utah, USA back in 2009 when she was just 15 years old.
7) Kumari had also won a couple of gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games which was held in New Delhi. One of her gold medals came in an individual event while the other in a women’s team recurve event.
8) The Indian archer was awarded 'The Outstanding Performance at CWG (Female) Award' at the Sahara Sports Awards 2010, for winning a couple of gold medals at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.
9) Kumari had won her first Archery World Cup individual recurve gold medal at Antalya (Turkey) back in May 2012.
10) The 21-year-old archer was honored with the Arjuna Award, which happens to be India’s second highest sporting award, back in 2012. The Government of India also awarded her with the country’s civilian honor, Padma Shri in 2016.
