Deepika Prajapati
Encyclopedia
Deepika Prajapati (born 13 June 1994) is a young India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n athlete who competes in the event of Archery
Archery
Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from Latin arcus. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity...

. She was born in the city of Ranchi
Ranchi
-Climate:Ranchi has a humid subtropical climate. However, due to its position and the forests around the city, it is known for its pleasant climate. Its climate is the primary reason why Ranchi was once the summer capital of the undivided State of Bihar...

, in the state of Jharkhand
Jharkhand
Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east...

, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. 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
2010 Commonwealth Games
The 2010 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games, were held in Delhi, India, from 3 to 14 October 2010. A total of 6,081 athletes from 71 Commonwealth nations and dependencies competed in 21 sports and 272 events, making it the largest Commonwealth Games till date...

 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
Dola Banerjee
Dola Banerjee is an Indian sportswoman who competes in archery.-Early life:Dola Banerjee is daughter of Ashok Banerjee and Kalpana Banerjee. She was born in Baranagar near Kolkata. She studied in Baranagar Rajkumari Memorial Girls High School. At the age of nine, she joined Baranagar Archery Club...

 and Bombayala Devi
Bombayala Devi
Laishram Bombayla Devi is an Indian archer. She represented India at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the women's individual as well as team events, but failed to reach the finals in both events....

.

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. 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.
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
Arjun Munda
Arjun Munda is an Indian Politician, former Member of Parliament to the 15th Lok Sabha. He resigned the 15th Lok Sabha membership on 26th February, 2011. Currently he is Chief Minister of Jharkhand....

 at Kharsawan
Kharsawan
Kharsawan is a city and a notified area in Seraikela Kharsawan district in the Indian state of Jharkhand.-History:Kharsawan or Kharsuan was one of the Oriya speaking Princely states of India during the period of the British Raj, and was acceded to India after India gained independence. Earlier...

. 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.

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.

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
Dola Banerjee
Dola Banerjee is an Indian sportswoman who competes in archery.-Early life:Dola Banerjee is daughter of Ashok Banerjee and Kalpana Banerjee. She was born in Baranagar near Kolkata. She studied in Baranagar Rajkumari Memorial Girls High School. At the age of nine, she joined Baranagar Archery Club...

 and Bombayala Devi
Bombayala Devi
Laishram Bombayla Devi is an Indian archer. She represented India at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the women's individual as well as team events, but failed to reach the finals in both events....

.

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
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Deepika missed out on a medal after she lost to Kwon Un Sil
Kwon Un-Sil
Kwon Un-Sil is an athlete from North Korea who competes in archery.-2008 Summer Olympics:At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing Kwon finished her ranking round with a total of 656 points...

 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
Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is an Indian cricketer and the current captain of the Indian national cricket team. He made his One Day International debut in December 2004 against Bangladesh, and a year later played his first Test, this time against Sri Lanka.Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC...

 who also comes from Ranchi
Ranchi
-Climate:Ranchi has a humid subtropical climate. However, due to its position and the forests around the city, it is known for its pleasant climate. Its climate is the primary reason why Ranchi was once the summer capital of the undivided State of Bihar...

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK