Olympic-Bound Deepika Kumari And Seven Other Archers Get Fully Vaccinated

Indian archers get vaccine: Everything was smooth and convenient, says archer Deepika Kumari after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine shot on Wednesday.

The Olympic-bound Indian archers became the first fully vaccinated lot of athletes from the country ahead of the Tokyo Games, scheduled to be held from July 23 to August 8 this year.

Former world number one Kumari, who assured an Olympics quota in archery back in 2019, took her second shot today. "Second and Final Dose of Vaccine is Done," wrote the ace archer to watch out for in the Tokyo Games on Instagram. She also thanked the Army Sports Institute, where the national camp for the recurve archers is being held, for "making everything smooth and convenient..."

India’s top-ranked woman archer, Kumari will now be aiming to bury the disappointments from London and Rio Olympics. Coming from a humble background, a rickshaw driver’s daughter, Kumari remains to be the ace archer from Jharkhand, and is a big bet for bringing home a medal this year. She also got married to fellow archer Atanu Das in Ranchi. It was a low-key ceremony that took place last year. Kumari is a Commonwealth Games gold medallist and has won three silver medals and two bronze medals in the world cup finals. Together, Kumari and Das have won a world cup mixed title in 2013. Read how archery happened for Deepika Kumari here

All the eight senior archers, included Atanu Das, India's most senior archer Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav and B Dhiraj (reserve) in men's and Kumari, Ankita Bhakat, Komolika Bari and Madhu Vedwan (reserve) in the women's section, the coaches and support staff were administered at the Military Hospital in Pune.

Atanu Das and Tarundeep Rai also captioned their vaccination photos on his Instagram. The Indian archers are gearing up for the first stage of the World Cup, to be held from April 19, which will be the first tournament for the seniors since the pandemic started. They will also compete in three back-to-back World Cups before the Tokyo Games in July-August. The last qualification tour will be the third stage of the World Cup, slated to be held in Paris from June 21-27.

Feature Image Credit: Deepika Kumari/Instagram