In the last month, Dhiraj Bommadevara left Saltillo, Mexico, as the World Cup Final champion, flew out of Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, with two Asian Games medals, and landed in Hyderabad to lead his team, Mighty Marathas, to the Archery Premier League (APL) title on Sunday.
Quite an incessant ride criss-crossing various events while collecting varied medals.
“No matter the tournament, it’s archery, at the end of the day,” said Dhiraj. “I’m enjoying my time, living my dream.”
And he is coming up with some of his career’s best shooting. In Mexico, Dhiraj shot an X in the shoot-off against Japan’s Junya Nakanishi in the final to become India’s first male gold medallist at the World Cup finale. In Japan, Dhiraj topped the men’s recurve qualification round with an Asian Games record score of 698, and took two silver medals with his men’s team and Kumkum Mohod in mixed. He lost to compatriot Neeraj Chauhan for the individual bronze.
“So good, so strong,” Dhiraj told HT in summing up how he felt about his archery currently.
“I have been consistent in my hard work, and the results have followed. I feel like the Asian Games was almost a perfect tournament for me, because it came with success as well as a lot of learning.”
Success was more glowing for Indian recurve archery as a whole. An all-podium presence – featuring two gold, two silver and a bronze – was a big hit at the competitive continental level. India’s most consistent face in recurve of late attributed this to a “perfect” team atmosphere that was different this time.
“There was a lot more positivity,” said Dhiraj. “We were able to get our combinations right and work together really well.”
Dhiraj turned 25 last month, and yet, in Indian recurve archery’s younger-looking landscape, he is increasingly achieving a bit of a statesman status. He is “Dhiraj bhaiya” to Kumkum, 17, and Neeraj, 23. Kumkum, the Asian Games women’s recurve champion, called Dhiraj her inspiration and revealed his motivational texts during her brilliant run in Japan. Neeraj, the Asian Games men’s recurve bronze medallist, recalled his conversations with Dhiraj in which Dhiraj assured him that his time on the podium would come.
Dhiraj is their senior, teammate, competitor and guide.
“I love it,” Dhiraj said. “When your team places that trust on you, especially juniors, it makes me feel like sharing my experience even more. We are lucky with the kind of atmosphere and the juniors coming in the team. The best thing with them is that they come and ask things without any hesitation. When they come to you themselves, you feel like helping them more.”
This is a relatively newfound role for the Paris Olympian, nuances of which he picked up from his Korean coach, Kim Hag Yong.
“There’s one thing that I learnt from Kim: a good teacher develops a player in a way that the player doesn’t need a teacher. I keep that in mind,” said Dhiraj. “I believe a good team is one where everyone follows their roles like a leader. Like, our Asian Games team did not have a specific captain. Every archer had the right to speak up, share their thoughts, guide the team, and talk to any of us on a personal level.”
That camaraderie was evident in Aichi-Nagoya, across all the recurve teams. What also helps develop team building is a league like APL, where conversations bounce around not just between seniors-juniors but also compound-recurve and Indian-foreign archers. “It’s good to learn how to have these healthy conversations, and how they can be tuned for positive outcomes in any situation,” said Dhiraj.
The Asian Games was a positive outcome for Indian recurve archery. So was the World Cup Final gold for its increasingly influential face. Dhiraj believes he is on the right path, and wants to ride this positivity towards a bigger personal destination.
“When you put all your energy and work into something, and when the result follows, it gives a different level of belief,” he said. “I feel like I’m on the right track. But, it’s important to keep pushing my limits.”