Tracing the rise of ace Indian archer Pravin Jadhav

The Maharashtra native impressed with his performance at the Tokyo Olympics.

Pravin Jadhav stood out at the Tokyo Olympics and made the brightest place for himself in the men’s individual ranking round. He emerged the highest ranked Indian men's archer, ahead of the likes of Atanu Das and Tarundeep Rai.

Did you know that he had almost become a daily wage laborer before starting as an archer?

So, who is Pravin Jadhav and where does he come from? We trace his journey from obscurity to catching all eyes at the biggest sports event in the world.

Poverty ridden childhood

Pravin Jadhav was born on July 6, 1996 in the village of Sarade in the Satara district of Maharashtra. The village was highly drought-prone and his family lived in a shack near a drain. His father, Ramesh Jadhav was a daily wage laborer and mother Sangita Jadhav was a homemaker. His childhood wasn't easy. Poverty made survival very difficult for the entire family, even educating him had become challenging for his father.

Given the lack of opportunities and infrastructure, Pravin Jadhav was destined to become a daily wage laborer. Finding it difficult to make ends meet, his father asked him to drop out of school when he was in seventh standard and join him at work.

Thanks to his then sports teacher, Vikas Bhujpal, things changed for the better for the Jadhav family. Vikas saw the spark in him and asked him to focus on athletics to earn a better living. Pravin, being too eager to take his family out of poverty, became actively diligent and dedicated to it. At that time, Bhujpal took care of his dietary needs and requirements and took him to an academy in Pune.

Early struggles

Before focusing on Archery in the Krida Prabodhini Hostel, Pravin Jadhav was having a hard time in athletics. He participated in 800m track race at the district level but did not have enough stamina to proceed ahead. In archery too, he was having difficulty in managing the recurve bow because he was physically weak. The academy was almost to give up on him when Bhujpal requested Mahesh Palkar, an education officer to give him a final chance. He performed exemplary at the last time and there has been no looking back since then.

His time in Amravati was spent in rigorous training and practice, the results of which can be comfortably seen in his achievements.

Accolades incoming

It was not long till the hard work of Pravin Jadhav began to bore fruits. He represented India in 2016 Asia Cup Stage 1 in Bangkok and won a Bronze in men’s recurve team event. He was also a part of the Indian team in the 2016 Archery World Cup in Medellin. Jadhav was part of the Indian recurve team that qualified for the final at the 2019 World Archery Championships for the first time since 2005. As part of the team, he won the silver medal at the event.

All these achievements and accolades helped him do away with his poverty and rise to success.

Getting Employed under the Indian Army

In 2017, Jadhav was recruited by the Indian Army under sports quota after Colonel Vikram Dhayal, the coach of the compound archery team noticed him during the 2016 World Cup. Jadhav is currently ranked as a havildar in the Indian Army from 2019. This brought stability to his career.

Performance in 2020 Tokyo Olympics

As mentioned earlier, Pravin Jadhav emerged as the highest ranked male Indian archer in the individual ranking rounds of the Tokyo Olympics. He was ranked 31st with 656 points.

As part of the men's team comprising of him, Tarundeep Rai and Atanu Das, they reached the quarter-finals, becoming the first Indian men's archery team to do so. In fact, owing to his ranking he earned the right to represent India in the mixed team category at the Tokyo Olympics alongside Deepika Kumari.

Besides his performance in the team events, Jadhav also had an impressive debut Olympic singles campaign. Pravin Jadhav began his campaign in the men's individual recurve in archery at the Tokyo Olympics with a bang. He registered a 6-0 win over world No.2, ROC's Galsan Bazarzhapov in the Round of 64.

Jadhav went on to face world champion Brady Ellison in the next round, where he suffered a 0-6 loss. When playing Ellison, he shot below eight twice in the second and third sets.

Although the journey did not end with success, the Tokyo Olympics 2020 helped to put the limelight on Pravin Jadhav. His hard work has finally paid off and in the coming times, greater things are being expected from him.

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