Meet Ankita Bhakat, Archer Set For Her Debut At Paris Olympics

Ankita Bhakat is an archer from West Bengal who has overcome many financial constraints to train in the sport she loves. Evidently, all the effort paid off as she is now on her way to the 2024 Paris Olympics to participate in the women's archery events. Her archery journey began when she had not even hit her teenage years, and now at 26 she finally gets the opportunity to represent her country at the sport she loves. 

Ankita Bhakat's Journey In Archery

Bhakat was first introduced to archery at only 10 years old when she was living in Calcutta. She entered a local archery competition in Kolkata's Circus Maidan but did not have the expertise nor could afford the proper equipment at the time, being born into the family of a milkman. 

Despite her financial constraints, she began to practice at a local club by borrowing equipment and honing her skills and then eventually became a part of the Tata Archery Academy in 2014. She trained at the academy in Jamshedpur under the guidance of her coaches Dharmendra Tiwari, Purnima Mahato, and Ram Awdesh. 

Only a year later, Bhakat was selected to be part of the team that would represent India at the World Archery Youth Championships 2015 in Yankton, South Dakota. At the time, she was barely an adult but managed to qualify for the trials held by the Archery Association of India (AAI) to select athletes for the international tournament. 

After this international debut, Bhakat did not stop making her country proud. She won a silver and a bronze medal at the Seoul International Youth Archery Festa in 2015 and then reached the finals at the Asia Cup 2017 and the Indian Senior National Championships, also in 2017.

Bhakat's Achievements

Since then, Bhakat has participated in several tournaments and has won laurels in most of them. She won her first gold medal at the 2022 Khelo India Women's National Ranking Archery Tournament at the JRD Tata Sports Complex.

Bhakat is a first-time Olympian who is a gold medallist in the mixed team (with Jemson Singh Ningthoujam) at the 2017 U21 World Championships, according to the Olympics website.

She is also a team recurve bronze medallist at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games (with Bhajan Kaur and Simranjeet Kaur) and a three-time Asian championships team medallist - silver in 2021, bronze in 2019 and 2023.

Bhakat At Paris Olympics

She finished in the top eight at the Final World Archery Olympic Qualifier 2024, managed to secure her spot on the Indian Olympic team for archery, and will be making her debut appearance at the Paris Olympic Games 2024. She will be competing in the Archery women's individual event of the Olympics on July 25.

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