Sirsa9 hours agoAuthor: Rajkishore
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Dhani Bachan Singh village is about 45 km from Sirsa in Haryana. A girl from this village reached school. The sports teacher saw that she was tall and healthy too. The teacher called her and said, you should practice shot put. In shot put, a ball weighing about 4 kg has to be thrown far. The girl won medals in shot put at school and state level.
One day the teacher brought an archery kit. No one else was present, so the shotput champion handed the bow to the same girl. The girl passed this test as well. The teacher said – from now on you will play this game only. The girl who was 13 years old when she picked up the bow for the first time is now 18 years old. Her name is Bhajan Kaur.
Bhajan Kaur is now in India’s archery team. Today she faced defeat in the pre-quarterfinal match of the women’s individual at the Paris Olympics.
The result of Bhajan Kaur’s success is that children in the village have started practicing archery in the morning and evening. Dainik Bhaskar reached Dhani Bachan Singh village to know Bhajan’s story. We talked to her family and teacher.
Bhajan during a photo session at Paris Olympics 2024. Photo- kaurbarcher Insta
Father took loan to buy kit and built archery range in his field
Bhajan Kaur’s family is a farmer. It is a joint family. Her father Bhagwan Singh has two brothers. When Bhajan Kaur started playing at the state and national level, Bhagwan Singh felt that it was necessary to practice regularly. He got an archery range, i.e. an arena, prepared in the field near the house.
Took loan to prepare for state level, paid it back by selling grains
Bhagwan Singh says, ‘Earlier Bhajan used to practice in Indian round. For this she had bought a kit worth 40 thousand rupees. Then the coach said that at the state level and national level, she will have to shift from Indian round to recurve round. On the advice of the coach, we bought equipment for recurve round. These are expensive. We did not have money. I took a loan from the middleman and got the equipment for my daughter. Later I paid off the loan by selling grains.’
Father also learned archery for Bhajan
Seeing Bhajan, his younger sister Karmveer and brother Yashmeet also started practicing archery. Some school children also started coming to his farm in the evening to practice. Bhagwan Singh used to play cricket, but he took a coaching certificate from the Archery Association of India for the children.
Bhagwan Singh says, ‘As Bhajan and her siblings started getting interested in archery, I started going to state and national tournaments with Bhajan. I felt that if I wanted to take my daughter forward, I should also know about archery. So first I did certificate courses in coaching conducted by the state and then by the national federation.’
Mother said- daughter forgets to eat but does not forget to practice
While we were talking to Bhagwan Singh, Bhajan Kaur’s mother Preetpal Kaur brought a bag. It contains the medals won by Bhajan. Preetpal says, ‘Bhajan works very hard. She loves archery. She may forget to eat, but she never forgets to practice. My daughter will win medals for the country.’
Bhajan’s younger sister Karmveer Kaur used to practice discus throw earlier. Karmveer says, ‘When children started practicing in my field, I left discus throw and started doing archery. My younger brother also practices with me.’
The school where Bhajan started practicing archery
After meeting Bhajan’s family, we reached Nachiketan Public School in Ailanabad. The school’s director Ranjit Singh Sandhu was the one who put the bow in Bhajan’s hands for the first time.
Ranjit tells the story, ‘Once I went to Patiala to buy sports equipment for the school. I saw an archery kit there. There was no arrangement for archery practice in our school. I bought an equipment of Indian Round. I did not know much about it. I was also confused about whom to practice it with. My younger brother Parminder Singh called Bhajan and asked him to shoot it. Bhajan shot the arrow perfectly.’
‘I told her to do archery too. I called Bhajan’s father and talked to him. I told him to gather information about archery. Then we came to know about an archery coach in Sirsa. He agreed to come to our school on Saturdays and Sundays and coach the children. This is how Bhajan’s archery career started. After playing at the nationals, she got selected in Jamshedpur’s Tata Academy. She trains there with Deepika Kumari and Ankita Bhagat.’
Why was Bhajan chosen for archery? Parminder Singh says, ‘Bhajan has a good height, I felt that she could do this easily compared to other children. She proved us right. Then we also felt that we should start archery practice in school. This is how archery started in our school.’
