Ankita Bhakat Age, Boyfriend, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Ankita Bhakat

• Ankita Bhakat is an Indian recurve archer. She is the only left-handed archer in the country who competes in international events in the women’s individual, women’s team and mixed team recurve categories. She came to the limelight in 2023 after winning a bronze medal in the Archery Recurve Women’s Team Event in the 2022 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China.

• When she was 10 years old, she saw a local archery tournament in Kolkata’s Circus Maidan and was immediately attracted towards it. After a few days, she joined a local archery club in the city to practice the game. She struggled with the expensive archery equipment because her family could not afford it. However, she did not let this thing come between her love for the game. She used to borrow equipment from other students at the club and practise with them. She did not have a bow and arrow set for a long time in her journey.

• In 2014, she joined the Tata Archery Academy at Jamshedpur, where she trained under coaches Dharmendra Tiwari, Purnima Mahato and Ram Awdesh.

• In the trials conducted by the Archery Association of India (AAI), Bhakat performed very well and was selected to be part of the Indian national team for the 2015 World Archery Youth Championships in Yankton.

• When the tournament came up, she and 18 athletes and coaches from India were denied visas to enter the US one week before the event.

• In 2015, she won a bronze medal in the girl’s individual recurve competition and a silver medal in the girl’s recurve team event at the Seoul International Youth Archery Festa, held in Seoul.

• In 2016, she won against Prachi Singh scoring 6–2 in an all-Indian first-round match but lost to Jeon Hunyoung in the pre-quarter-finals scoring 0–6 in the women’s individual recurve competition at the Indoor Archery World Cup (Stage 2) in Bangkok.

• She competed against Deepika Kumari in the women’s individual event losing by 2-6 at the 2017 Asia Cup (Stage 2) held in Bangkok. In the tournament, she competed in the women’s recurve team event with her teammates, Promia Daimary and Sakshi Rajendra Shitole losing to Chinese Taipei in the final by 0-6.

• Later in 2017, she participated in the women’s recurve competition at the 37th edition of the Indian Senior National Championships in Faridabad. She reached the finals but lost to Deepika Kumari by 6-2.

• In the 2017 Asia Cup (Stage 3) World Ranking Tournament, held in Chinese Taipei, she took part in women’s individual, women’s team and mixed team events winning the bronze medal in the mixed team event with her partner Mukesh Boro.

• In 2017, while she was training at Sonipat, Haryana, she became part of the 24 members, selected to compete for the Indian national team in the 2017 World Archery Youth Championships in Rosario, Argentina.

• In the World Youth Archery Championships, she and her partner Jemson Singh Ningthoujam competed against the Russian team in the recurve junior mixed team event winning by 6-2. They defeated the Korean team by 5–4 in the quarter-final and the Ukrainian team by 6–0 in the semi-final, reaching the finals. They bagged the gold medal and reached rank nine in the tournament. This win by Ankita and Jemson gave India its fourth overall world youth championships title. The title came after six years which was last won by Deepika Kumari in 2009 and 2011.

• In April 2018, she participated in the women’s individual, women’s team and mixed team recurve events at the 2018 Archery World Cup. She reached number eight in the individual recurve event scoring 665 out of 720 points in the qualifications round. In the third round, she defeated Bombayla Devi Laishram by 6–4 but in the fourth round, she lost to China’s An Qixuan by 4–6. For the women’s team event, she participated with Promila Daimary and Deepika Kumara as her teammates. The team reached the quarter-finals but lost to the Chinese team by 1-5. In the mixed-team event, she teamed up with Atanu Das but lost to the United States team by 4-5 in the quarter-finals.

• In May 2018, she took part in the 2018 Archery World Cup – Stage 2, in Antalya, Turkey. She competed in the women’s individual and women’s recurve team events. For the team event, she teamed up with Promila Daimary and Deepika Kumari. They won the second round and quarter-finals defeating the French and the Russian teams by 5–3 and 5–1 respectively and reaching the semi-finals. They lost the semi-finals to the South Korean team by 2–6.

• In 2021, in the Archery World Cup, the Indian women’s recurve team including Ankita Bhakat, Deepika Kumari, and Komalika Bhari won a gold medal in Guatemala.

• In January 2022, she won the individual recurve women’s title at the National Archery Ranking Tournament.
  

  Ankita Bhakat holding silver medal at the National Archery Ranking Tournament

• In 2022, Ankita, Deepika Kumari, and Simranjeet Kaur, who teamed up for the recurve women’s team final at Paris Archery World Cup Stage 3, won a silver medal.
  

  Ankita Bhakat (right) with her team after winning the silver medal at the Paris Archery World Cup Stage 3

• In March 2023, she won a silver medal in the 43rd NTPC Senior National Championship.
  

  Ankita Bhakat holding a silver medal at the 43rd NTPC Senior National Championship

• In April 2022, she won a gold medal and prize money of Rs. 5 lakhs at the maiden Khelo India Women National Ranking Archery Tournament at the JRD Tata Sports Complex.
  

  Ankita Bhakat wins at Khelo India Women National Ranking Archery Tournament

• In August 2023, the Indian recurve women’s team won a bronze medal at the Archery World Cup Stage-4 in Paris. The team consisting of Bhajan Kaur, Simranjeet Kaur and Ankita Bhakat defeated Mexico by 5-4.

• In October 2023, she and Bhajan Kaur won a bronze medal in the women’s recurve event at the Asian Games.
  

  Ankita Bhakat holding bronze medal at the Asian Games