Meet Komalika Bari, India's gold medal winner at World Archery Youth Championships in Madrid

Komalika Bari made history on Sunday as she became only the third Indian to bag a wold title at the World Archery Youth Championships.

Published : Aug 28, 2019 17:57 IST

Komalika Bari received a warm welcome on her arrival in her hometown after her gold medal at the World Youth Archery Championships.
Komalika Bari received a warm welcome on her arrival in her hometown after her gold medal at the World Youth Archery Championships.
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Komalika Bari received a warm welcome on her arrival in her hometown after her gold medal at the World Youth Archery Championships.

Komalika Bari, 17, etched her name in history books on Sunday as she became just the third Indian to win the gold medal at the World Archery Youth Championships.

Komalika, who was 15th after the ranking round, got a bye and beat five opponents — including two Koreans and a Japanese — to bag the title in the recurve cadet event at the championships in Madrid.

“I have gained a lot of confidence after coming to elite level and it has helped me,” Komalika told Sportstar from Madrid after her win.

For someone who trained with the Indian bows (read bamboo bows) for four years before switching to recurve at the Tata Archery Academy (TAA) in 2016, Komalika’s rise has been swift.

Hailing from Jharkhand, Komalika followed her cousin brother’s footsteps to take up archery at the ISWP Sports Complex, Jamshedpur, before honing her skills under TAA coaches Dharmendra Tiwari and Purnima Mahato.

“After coming to the TAA, I focused on my shooting. I learnt a lot working alongside the elite archers. I got to know how to maintain calmness, patience and how to handle different situations…Here, inputs from coaches Surinder Singh and Anil Kumar were useful,” she said.

The teenager, who made her international debut at the South Asian championship earlier this year, made her mark to ensure her spot in the Indian side for elite events including World Cups in Turkey and Germany, the World championships in the Netherlands and the Olympic test event in Tokyo.

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