A look at the top 5 Indian archers of all time

Jayant Talukdar

The Arjuna Awardee has had a fine career as far as individual accolades are concerned. He first won a medal in the World Championships back in 2005. He MADE His international debut back in 2003, won a Gold at the World Cup in 2006, and broke into the top 10 World rankings as a result. His performances at the Olympics were disappointing but he made up for it with accolades in the Asian Archery Championships. His total medal haul at the World Cup Stage is 7 Gold, 10 silver, and 5 bronze medals.

Dola Banerjee

She first represented India at the age of 16 at the Youth Championships back in 1996. No one can deny that she is one of the most experienced archers the Indian circuit with over 55 international representations in her approximate 20 year career. She became a World Champion back in 2007 and was the first Indian woman to qualify for the individual archery event at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Her accolades also include a gold in the Delhi Commonwealth Games and an Arjuna Award back in 2005.

Abhishek Verma

The former World No. 6 is one of the top archers in the Asian Archery circuit over the past two decades. He has won a total of 6 Gold Medals and 3 silvers at the Asian Archery Championships with a solitary Gold also coming at the World Cup stage 3 event in Poland back in 2007. Abhishek Verma been one of the many Indian male archers who has consistently held top positions the various international tournaments over the past decade.

Limba Ram

His story is worth delving into to truly understand how talented the former World No 4 was. As a youngster, his first taste of archery was hunting birds with his bamboo bow and arrow. He was selected during SAI trials that were held in Udaipur district of Rajasthan and was sent to Delhi for an intensive training camp. This was the start of his rise into the domain of international archery. Before he was 20, he had already won National Junior and Senior Championships, had reached the quarter-finals of the World Archery Championships, and was also selected to represent India at the 1988 Olympics.

One of the most agonizing events was when he missed out on winning the bronze medal at the Barcelona Olympics despite being tied going into the elimination round. His opponent was made the victor by virtue of shooting a higher number of 10's. He also has the distinction of equalling a World Record in 1992 at the Asian Archery Championships. Limba Ram easily goes down as one of India's finest archers to have graced the sport.

Deepika Kumari

She has undoubtedly been the best archer India has ever seen. The girl from Jharkhand who once practiced shooting mangos with stones entered the Tata Archery Academy in 2005. Till then, she had barely any formal coaching in archery and was introduced to the sport with top equipment and coaching. 2009 was her major breakthrough when she won Gold in the Cadet World Championships. There has been no looking back since then for the current World No 9.

She has been duly awarded the Arjuna Award, the Padma Shri, and the FICCI sportsperson of the year. Her individual accolades are not just the best in India but rank amongst the top archers of all time. Till date she has won over 30 medals in international events that include 7 gold medals in various editions of the World Cup. She won the Youth World Championships in 2009 and was the World No 1 back in 2012. The Olympic medal has eluded her time and again due to unfavourable circumstances but her resilience has kept her in contention to win a medal at Tokyo 2021.