Mumbai: Kirti Sharma is currently in a bit of a pinch-me mode.
“I’m still finding it a bit difficult to believe what I’ve done,” she says. “I knew that I had it in me to reach this level. But the fact that I’m going to compete at such a big stage, I’ve been buzzing.”
That was when it dawned on the 19-year-old from Haryana that she had topped the women’s recurve trials for selecting the Indian contingent for the Asian Games and World Cup Stages 3&4. From not having beaten Ankita Bhakat ever before, Kirti went past the Paris Olympian as well as Deepika Kumari, a four-time Olympian, at the end of the four-day trials on Monday.
From having sporadic appearances in just three international events before, Kirti is set to feature in her career’s three biggest tournaments this year, the last being the marquee multi-sport continental event.
Some of Indian archery’s most experienced shoulders have often buckled under pressure in such high-stake stages in the past. The women’s team set to represent India at this year’s Asian Games has two teen rookies – Kirti and Kumkum Mohod of Maharashtra – and Ankita.
“I feel like it will be an advantage for me,” Kirti told HT. “My thinking will be that I have no pressure at all since it will be my first big stage outing. The way I played without any pressure in these trials, I will look to play the same way in these competitions. Just focus on giving my best.”
She couldn’t quite give her best in the first set of trials in January in Kolkata, where she finished fifth. Her focus immediately shifted to the next trials, ramping up training under coach Udham Singh, adding practice hours and changing routines.
Before the Kolkata trials, she skipped sessions to give her BA second year exams. Before the Sonipat trials, she skipped her exams.
“I thought, exams will keep coming, this opportunity (for an Asian Games spot) comes once in four years,” she said.
School, incidentally, was where Kirti had her first brush with archery five years ago growing up in Pillukhera, Jind. Singh had set up an academy in her school, and Kirti watched her seniors take aim.
“It was the first time I saw dhanush (bow) and teer (arrow) live, and immediately found it interesting,” she said.
Her father, who came down to the school and spoke to coaches after being told about the sport by Kirti, found it even more interesting. A farmer, he encouraged his daughter to take it up, and not once let the family’s limited means (her mother is a housewife) come in the way.
“Being a middle-class family, it was a little difficult to afford equipment,” said Kirti. “I knew it wasn’t easy, even though my parents never let me know. No matter from where they would arrange the money, they never said no to anything I wanted.”
Despite the “up and down” results in the initial years affecting the kid with “a lot of doubts”, her father continued to back her. “He would say, ‘results will come at some point if you keep working hard’.”
Kirti soon shifted to the SAI centre in Jharkhand with Singh, who was deployed as a coach there. Despite her parents’ initial hesitancy to have their child away and in a hostel, she terms it the “best decision” because her career took off after that. She won gold at the junior nationals, bronze at the National Games and a few university level medals.
After competing in two international meets last year, Kirti was part of an inexperienced Indian team that took the Asia Cup Stage 1 bronze in March.
Battling with and bettering the likes of Ankita and Deepika at the trials has boosted her confidence. It’s an aspect the youngster believes she needs to improve further to front up to the world’s top archers, in what’s to come.
“These trials have helped in that, but if I want to compete with world-class archers at the World Cup and Asian Games, I will have to increase my self-belief. At times I tend to lose that, and doubts creep in. I don’t want that to happen in these events.”
