NAGOYA: It was not just the Indians. The gathered South Korean media were in awe. They had not factored this. If their women's team losing was shocking, this was even more unbelievable.
But one Indian archer had seen the gold coming, visualising the feat to the point of it being a premonition. Kumkum Mohod could see the X's even in her sleep. The 10s kept floating in front of her when she closed her eyes. “I visualized my shooting. I visualized hitting a 10 on every shot, and I also visualized winning the gold medal,” said Kumkum. On Saturday, she created history, winning gold in the individual recurve event, the first Indian archer to do so at the Asian Games.
India do not beat South Korea every day. It is considered monumental because of the standard the teams have set over the years in archery. Kumkum beat them thrice in two days. She is still competing with a borrowed bow because she is comfortable with it. She speaks very little; only specific answers. She prefers to focus on her game. No mobile, off social media, No YouTube account. No unnecessary distractions. She has kept away from sweets, her favourite food. The only targets are the colourful rings of archery 50m away. The 17-year-old from Maharashtra was in immaculate form on Saturday, the final day of the archery competition. She has had a tremendous round of games to beat South Korea's Oh Ye-jin in the shoot-off.
After her win, Kumkum kept repeating one word – visualisation. “I could visualize I would shoot X in the shoot off,” she said, like a hermit.
Life has not been easy for her. Her father Anil Manohar Mohod and coach Prafull Dange are the two persons who supported her throughout her journey. Mohod has had trouble financing her trips. Making sweet boxes was his profession but he had to stop when the pandemic hit. Kumkum, on the other hand, continued her romance with the sport, climbing one step at a time.
And it all culminated in a fairy tale at the Asian Games. With this gold, she has become one of the most successful athletes at this Games with two gold and one silver. The draw, as expected, was not easy for her. Being a young archer has its advantages, as one of her teammates described it quite succinctly. “There is no past baggage,” she had said yesterday. There is no pressure of any kind. Every win is considered historic, and every win is a part of her process.
First she beat the world champion Kang Chae-young, then the world championship finalist Zhu Jingyi, and then another Korean archer Oh Ye-jin. “I believed in myself, which is why I could deliver,” she said. “The team's support was huge, and their positive mindset helped me a lot.”
Kumkum loves drawing. Arts and crafts are her other hobbies. She never thought one day she would be standing with gold dangling around her neck. She took one step at a time. “I just aimed at the target, tried to score, and chased points,” she said. “As I kept doing it and improving, I started dreaming bigger.”
It was around 2020, during the sub-junior nationals, that she started to dream big. She had competed in that championship with an Indian-made bow. The competition was not all smooth sailing. She had shot an eight as well. But she immediately came back with a 10 – that has been the hallmark of her game. She keeps focus on her game rather than the point. She said as much: “I told myself to reset. My focus was drifting towards the arrow, so I reminded myself to focus on my shooting form instead of the result.”
Coach Sonam Tsering spoke about her highly. One quality he is in awe of is her maturity at this age. "She is not afraid of the podium; not afraid of the fact that she is young. She doesn't care about the world," he said.
Good thing is that the Olympics are just two years away. And she has already trained her arrows towards LA28. Knowing her, and her visualisation, that medal too is a big possibility.
