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What's the story?
On Sunday, India's ace archer Deepika Kumari participated in her sixth Archery World Cup Final in the Italian capital of Rome, where she crashed out in the first round after a 6-0 defeat at the hands of Chinese Taipei's Tan Ya-Ting. She was the lone Indian to qualify for the flagship season-ender after two top-8 finishes in prior World Cup stage events.
In an interview with the sport's official global body - World Archery's website, she slammed the Indian media for the amount of pressure that is put on her. At events such as the Olympics, she is expected to bring back nothing but gold, which makes her angry. She said, “I'm not a fan (of the Indian press). Not at all. Because they ask me stupid questions, and they’re always irritating me and behaving badly."
In case you didn't know
She is just 23 years of age and already has a number of medals in her cabinet. Kumari hit the headlines when she won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 as a 16-year-old and ever since, she has had to bear the burden of expectations of a billion people whenever she participates at any international event.
She has won four silver medals in her five appearances at the World Cup finals and is currently ranked number 12 in the world.
The heart of the matter
In the interview, she also spoke about how she has been trying to make changes to her training in order to grow as an archer. She added that she has been working on improving her confidence as well as her fitness training.
However, her campaign at the World Cup finals came to a quick end after the straight set loss. She started off in jittery fashion as Ya-Ting continued to come up with one excellent shot after the other.
Kumari had lost to the same archer in Rio, who would go on to win the bronze medal.
What's next?
The World Cup final marks the end of the World Cup cycle in the archery calendar. The pressure will be back on Kumari next year with the Asian and Commonwealth Games both lined up.
Author's take
It comes as no shock to see the young archer using such harsh words to criticise the Indian media. She has been put under tremendous pressure before prestigious events by the press and it is understandable that she has talked about the press in such a manner.
