After near misses at Olympics, archer Dhiraj Bommadevara determined to hit bull’s eye in the long run

When Indian archer Dhiraj Bommadevara returned home in Vijayawada, he unpacked two target sheets from the Paris Olympics. One belonged to the 2-6 loss along with Ankita Bhakat to the USA in the mixed team bronze medal match, while the other was from the 22-year-old’s shoot-off loss against Canada’s Eric Peters in the men’s individual second round.

The latter contest was decided in favour of the Canadian, whose arrow was 2.4 cm closer to the centre of the target. It spelt the end of the road in the individual competition for the Indian, who was the fourth seed in qualification.

“I had hit six consecutive 10s before the shoot-off with Peters too shooting six consecutive 10s. The only thought in my mind going to the shoot-off was that I had given my best and the same will be the case in the shoot-off. When Peters hit the last shot and his arrow was 2.4 cm closer to the centre, I was devastated and totally blank for a few moments,” Bommadevara told The Indian Express.

“But when Peters told me that he was lucky to win, I thought, ‘Itni mehnat karunga ki luck bhi mere sath ayega kisi din’ (I would work so hard that even luck will come to my side). That’s why I got these target sheets along with me from Paris. To remind me every day to do the hard work.”

Five days before that memorable contest at Esplanade des Invalides, Bommadevara had shot a score of 681 in the individual qualification to be the fourth seed in the knock-out rounds and helping the Indian team comprising him, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadav finish as the third seeds in the team event, thus entering the quarter-finals directly. This was Bommadevera’s fourth score of 680 or above this year with his qualification score of 693 at the Shanghai World Cup Stage 1 being his career high. But a 2-6 loss against eventual bronze medallists Turkey ended their run at the first barrier.

Three months earlier, the Indian team had scored a 5-1 win over the South Korean trio of Lee Wooseok, two-time Olympic gold medallists Kim Je Deok and Kim Woo-Jin, and Dhiraj admits that it took some time for him to recover for the individual as well as mixed team events.

“If I talk about myself, I saw the pressure of the Olympics, on a scale of 100, to be 70-80 percent as compared to 60-70 during a world cup or Asian Games. But that day, I could sense that there was no limit to the pressure of an Olympics. It was my first Olympics knock-out stage and we all sat together and discussed a lot of things to cool off. The one thing I took from that loss against Turkey was that if there is no limit to Olympic pressure, I would also shoot without any limits (free mind),” shares the archer.

The last two years have seen Bommadevera winning two bronze medals at the World Cups. He has seen his average arrow score climb from 8.58 in 2019 to 9.54 this year, but had to watch the medal matches in the men’s individual event in Paris four days after the mixed team bronze medal loss.

Indian archers Ankita Bhakat and Dhiraj Bommadevara missed out on a bronze medal for India at the Paris Olympics on Friday. (PHOTO: AP)

“Kim Woo-Jin had become the individual world champion in 2011 and had almost every title in the world, including the Olympic team gold in 2016 and 2021. It took him more than 15 years to become the individual Olympic champion. So that day, when he won the Olympic gold in Paris, I was there to reflect that I have to do 15 times more hard work to see myself in that position in the coming years,” he says.

Room for improvement

Towards that endeavour, there are a lot of technical intricacies that need to be mastered.

“I have been working on getting the hook between the first joint of index and middle finger as it would become tight earlier. There are small things which I need to improve,” shares the archer.

While the Indian had his face-off against Kim Woo-Jin at Paris in the mixed team semi-finals, where the Indian team lost 2-6 against the Korean pair of Woo-Jin and Lim Sihyeon after taking an early lead, the loss did make the Indian ponder over a few matters. The Indian had hit an eight in the third set when the team needed a 10 to take a 4-2 lead in the match. Bommadevara has been in touch with Korean archers for the last two years and their comeback in the contest didn’t surprise him.

“I have been in touch with archers like London Olympics champion Oh Jin Hayek, apart from Kim Woo-Jin and Lee Woo-Seok, and the biggest takeaway is that they too feel the pressure. But the kind of preparation they have, like competing against a robot in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics, apart from the kind of mental strength they have, is something which we all aim for. When I hit that 8, my thought was not that we could have taken the lead but that we could still make a comeback. To remain in that mindset is what the Koreans do and that’s what I aim for,” says the archer, who is currently a subedar with Bombay Sappers in the Indian Army.

Within minutes of the semi-final loss against the Koreans, Bommadevara and Ankita faced USA’s Brady Ellison and Casey Kaufhold for the bronze medal. The Indians had a close opening set scoring 37 against USA’s 38 before losing the second set too. The Indians lost the match 2-6 but Bommadevara sees that as the first step to where no one in Indian archery had reached.

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“I don’t count on luck. In the quarter-final, I hit a 10 when we needed a 10 in the last set to win the match and it was execution that took us to the semi-finals. We had to shoot in the wind but the only thought in our minds was yeh bhi counter karenge age aur yahan tak pahunche hain toh aur age bhi jayenge (We will counter this next time and if we have reached here, we will go further next time),” says Bommadevara.

Back in the present, he is busy watching Telugu actor Prabhas’ movies before resuming training. “Prabhas sir gave his five years to the Bahubali series even when he was battling an injury. My Olympic journey has only begun and archery has been a part of my life since I was six. The commitment will only take me further,” he adds.

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