Deepika Prajapati

Deepika Prajapati

Personal information
Nationality	Indian
Born	June 13, 1994 (1994-06-13) (age 17) Ranchi
Residence	Ranchi, Jharkhand, India
Height	1.61 m (5 ft 3 in) (2010)
Weight	56 kg (120 lb) (2010)
Sport
Country	India
Sport	Archery
Club	Tata Archery Academy
Team	Indian Archery Women Team
Turned pro	2006
Medal record Women's archery Competitor for  India Commonwealth Games Gold 2010 Delhi Women's recurve individual Gold 2010 Delhi Women's recurve team Bronze Asian Games 2010 Archery at the 2010 Asian Games – Women's recurve team

Deepika Prajapati (Hindi:दीपिका प्रजापती ) (born 13 June 1994) is a young Indian athlete who competes in the event of Archery. She was born in the city of Ranchi, in the state of Jharkhand, India. She is a budding archer and a huge prospect for India in the upcoming London Olympics 2012. She won gold medal in the 2010 Commonwealth games in the women's individual recurve event. She also won gold medal in the same competition in the women's team recurve event along with Dola Banerjee and Bombayala Devi.

Early life

Deepika Prajapati/Deepika Kumari was born to Shri. Shivnarayan Mahato, an auto-rickshaw driver and Smt. Geeta Mahato, a nurse in Ranchi Medical College.^[1] The parents stay at Ratu Chati village, 15 km away from Ranchi. Her mother says that she never used to miss her target while aiming for mangoes with stones in her childhood.^[2] In the early days it was rather difficult for the parents to financially support Deepika's dream, often compromising on the family budget to buy her new equipments for her training. In fact, when her father came to know that she wanted to make a career in archery, he wasn't happy. But the young gutsy archer never gave up and started her practice with bamboo made bows and arrows. Finally it was Deepika's cousin Vidya Kumari, also an archer at Tata Archery Academy, who showed her the way.

Career

Deepika got her first breakthrough in 2005 when she entered Arjun Archery Academy, an institute set up by Meera Munda, wife of Chief Minister of the state Shri. Arjun Munda at Kharsawan. But her professional archery journey begun in the year 2006 when she joined the Tata Archery Academy in Jamshedpur. It was here that she started her training with proper equipment and uniform. She also received Rs 500 as stipend. Deepika visited her home in three years only after winning the cadet World Championship title in November 2009. Even when the national camp at the SAI Eastern Centre in Kolkata is not on, she checks into the hostel of the KMCT College in Ranchi, where she is studying arts in first year junior college.^[3]

Achievements

Deepika become the second Indian to win the title after Palton Hansda won the World champion at Mérida (Mexico) in 2006 by winning the junior compound individual gold medal.^[4]

She won the 11th Youth World archery Championship held in Ogden, USA in 2009, at an age of 15 years. She also won a gold medal in the same competition in the women's team recurve event along with Dola Banerjee and Bombayala Devi.

In the recently held Delhi Commonwealth games 2010, Deepika won two gold medals, one in the individual event and other in the women's team recurve event. For this she was recently honoured with 'the Outstanding Performance at CWG (Female) award' at Sahara Sports Awards 2010.

Later in the Asian games 2010, held in Guangzhou, China, Deepika missed out on a medal after she lost to Kwon Un Sil of North Korea in the bronze-medal play-off of the women's individual archery event. But as a part of the Indian archery recurve team, along with Rimil Buriuly and Dola Banerjee, Deepika edged out Chinese Taipei 218–217 in the bronze play-off to ensure a podium finish at the Aoti Archery Range.

During the Jharkhand day celebrations, the government of Jharkhand, issued full page photos in leading local newspapers with Deepika showing off her gold medals along with India's cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who also comes from Ranchi.^[5]

References

1. ^ "Jharkhand archer dreams of Olympic medal". The Hindu. 10 October 2010. http://www.hindu.com/2010/10/10/stories/2010101062760700.htm. Retrieved 10 October 2010. 
2. ^ "Deepika Kumari: From mangoes to CWG gold", The Siasat times, October 10, 2010, accessed October 10, 2010.
3. ^ "Father accepts Deepika has proved him wrong", The Hindustan times, October 11, 2010, accessed October 11, 2010.
4. ^ "Archery champion Deepika, an inspiration for the youth". Thaindian.com. 2009-07-30. http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/feature/archery-champion-deepika-an-inspiration-for-the-youth_100225281.html. Retrieved 2011-03-15. 
5. ^ "Dhoni, Deepika Kumari feature in Jharkhand day ad"

External links

• Archery. Org, Results: Recurve Cd. Women's Individual – 2009 World Archery Young Championships, Archived at WebCite on 29 July 2010
• Tehelka.com

Persondata
Name	Kumari, Deepika
Alternative names	Queen of Black Beauty
Short description
Date of birth	1994-06-13
Place of birth	Ranchi
Date of death
Place of death