The spectators were held with awe when Oh Jinhyek, South Korea’s Olympic Gold medalist, was beaten by the Indian archer Atanu Das at the Tokyo Olympics 2021 to advance to the men’s pre-quarterfinal recurve individual event.
The latest sports news states that on 1 October 2021, the archer who is the spouse of Deepika Kumari, yet another archer, had made it to the semi-finals at the World Cup held at Yankton, USA, braving the extremely cold weather. However, the archer had lost his bronze medal to Mete Gazoz, the Olympic Champion from Turkey.
Early Life and First Steps into Archery
Atanu Das hails from the city of Baranagar, West Bengal. He put forward his first step towards archery at the age of 14 by joining the Kolkata Archery Club under the guidance of his coach Mithu Da. In 2007, Atanu had secured a gold medal in both individual and team events at the National sub-junior championships, which paved the way to his entry into the Tata Archery Academy in the year 2008, where Lim Chae Wong from Korea coached him.
His first International victory was at the World Youth Championship Men’s team event organized in Poland, where he secured a Silver Medal in 2011. His Olympic debut was at the Rio Olympics, held in 2016.
Atanu Das is also a B.A(Hons.) graduate from Vinayaka Mission University in Salem, Tamil Nadu.
Achievements of Atanu Das
According to the latest sports news, the following are the achievements of Atanu Das:
● In 2020 he became the 17th archer to be presented with the Arjuna award, the second-highest award given to honor outstanding achievements in sports in India.
● He has secured a gold medal at the 33rd edition of the Junior National Archery Championships held at New Delhi, India, in 2010.
● In 2013, Atanu Das finished off with a bronze medal at the Asian Archery Grand Prix, conducted in Thailand.
● Atanu Das is the recipient of the Gold Medal at the Archery World Cup held in Guatemala City in 2021, defeating the Spanish archer Daniel Castro, while he also won a Bronze medal at the mixed event.
● In 2019 he won Bronze medals in the Individual, Mixed Team, and Recurve Team events at the Asian Archery Championship.
Atanu Das, who is currently ranked 9th as per the latest sports news, is presently employed at Bharat Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, Kolkata. He is highly committed to practicing the sport daily, and he shoots a minimum of 800 arrows in a day. During the lockdown due to COVID-19, Atanu Das stated that he used a portable with which he trains over a range of 10m to keep himself active while the academies were closed. Besides regular practice sessions, Atanu Das has been working on the mental side of the game to get a clearer vision of the sport.
Atanu Das is currently equipping himself for the upcoming 19th edition of the Asian Games that is going to be held between 10 and 25 September 2022 at Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, as per the latest sports news. Atanu is an exceptional archer, and his performance at the Asiad is a much-awaited one.