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Not for Profit organisation Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) today announced the signing of India’s top archers Deepika Kumari & Jayanta Talukdar to support their training for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Deepika and Jayanta, both Arjuna awardees, are employed with Tata Steel. With this, OGQ now supports four senior archers including Rahul Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai.
Viren Rasquinha, CEO, OGQ:
“Deepika and Jayanta are both world class archers and great medal prospects for India at Rio 2016 and OGQ is very proud to support them. With just over 3 years to go to the Rio 2016 Olympics it is essential that we put concrete plans in place for them right away. OGQ will focus on providing them with world class equipment and sending them abroad for more exposure for training and competitions. Finally, we will also ensure that they get the right mental training and world class medical support to keep them in top shape.”
Deepika Kumari:
“I am very happy to get the support of OGQ. After the experience at the London Olympics, I have realised that my training needs to be more professional and systematic. I know that OGQ can make a significant impact in this regard along with the support that I am already getting from Tata Steel. I am working very hard to achieve my dream of winning gold for India at the Olympics and this crucial support has come at the right time for me.”
Jayanta Talukdar:
“I have seen from very close quarters how efficiently OGQ takes care of my archery colleagues Rahul Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai. Dr. Nikhil Latey from OGQ has been working with us as a physiotherapist at the national camp in Pune for last 2 months and his presence and expertise have been invaluable. I am confident that the OGQ and Tata Steel support will enable us to mount a serious challenge for Olympic medals.”
18 year old Deepika, the current world no. 3, started her training at the Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur in 2008. She shot into the limelight when she won the World Youth Archery Championships in USA in 2009 at the age of 15 years. Since then, the teenager who hails from Jharkhand, has won multiple medals in World Championships and World Cups and even held the world No.1 rank briefly in 2012. She also won the gold medal in the individual recurve event at the CWG in 2010 in New Delhi. Kumari qualified for the 2012 London Olympics, where she competed in the women’s individual and the women’s team events, finishing in eighth place in the latter. Most recently, she won a silver medal in the individual recurve event at the 2013 World Cup in Shanghai.
27 year old Jayanta Talukdar has been the flag bearer of Indian Archery for almost a decade now. Jayanta first made a mark in 2006 when he grabbed the Gold medal at the Archery World Cup tournament held at Porec, Croatia. He was the first Indian archer ever to clinch the coveted title. He repeated this feat again in 2009 at the same venue and also won the Gold medal in the team event. This propelled him to a career best world ranking of 2. He won a Bronze medal in the individual event at the CWG in New Delhi in 2010 and later that year he won the Bronze medal in the team event at the Asian Games in China. He qualified for the London Olympics 2012 at the World Championships in Turin in 2010. The exploits of Jayanta along with his team mates Rahul Banerjee and Tarundeep Rai propelled India to the best ever team ranking of world no.1 in 2011. Incidentally, Rahul and Tarundeep are also supported by OGQ.
About OGQ:
OGQ is a Not for Profit Foundation started by Indian sporting legends Geet Sethi and Prakash Padukone. OGQ supports the training and preparation of 50 sportspersons across 7 individual Olympic sports viz. Badminton, Boxing, Shooting, Archery, Wrestling, Luge and Athletics. The mission of OGQ is to help Indian athletes win Olympic Gold medals. 4 athletes supported by OGQ; Vijay Kumar, Gagan Narang, Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom; won medals at the London 2012 Olympics.
OGQ’s Board of Directors comprises of Geet Sethi (9 times World Cue Sports Champion, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Padma Shri Awardee), Prakash Padukone (All England Champion and Padma Shri Awardee), Leander Paes (13 time Tennis Grand Slam Champion, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee), Viswanathan Anand (5 Time World Chess Champion, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee), Niraj Bajaj (4 time National Table Tennis Champion, Arjuna Awardee and Director, Bajaj Group of Companies), R Ramaraj (Senior Adviser, Sequoia Capital India), Shitin Desai (DSP Merrill Lynch), Rakesh Khanna (Founding Partner, Ambit RSM), Neeraj Bharadwaj (MD, Carlyle India Advisors) and Deepika Padukone (Acclaimed Actor). Viren Rasquinha (former Indian Hockey Captain and Arjuna Awardee) is the CEO of Olympic Gold Quest.
