Became the first male archer to win gold in the World Championship

Country's first male archer Ojas Praveen Detwale to win gold in World Archery Championship says- 'I will not change my event for Paris Olympics, but will strengthen my preparations till 2028 Olympics.'

He says- At present my focus is on the Asian Games going to be held in Hangzhou next month.

The 17-year-old archer has recently won gold in the men's compound event of the World Archery Championship held in Berlin, the capital of Germany. The special thing is that Ojas hit all the arrows on target and got Perfect-10. He scored 150 points in the final out of 150 points. Ojas defeated Lukasz Przybylski of Poland by one point.

Everything was closed in lockdown, yet the practice continued

Ojas started archery from his school days. They were busy preparing for national-international competitions when the Corona pandemic struck and the government imposed a lockdown. Everything was closed, so Ojas went to the village and continued his practice by setting up in a school. He lived alone and cooked his own food.

Seeing Ojas' practice amid the lockdown, the villagers called him a fool, but later his hard work paid off and Ojas became the first male archer to win gold for India in the World Archery Championship.

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Why choose the compound round when this event is not included in the Olympic Games

Initially, I chose the recurve round, but our academy only had compound bows. I asked the coach if I could try it. The coach said yes you do. If you like it, then continue it.

Then I started practicing with a compound bow and I liked it. Since then I have switched to compound bow. At that time I did not know whether this event was in the Olympics or not. I chose it as a sport without thinking twice.

Next year is paris olympic, will change event or continue compound

My entire setup is in the compound. I will continue to play in the compound. There is talk of including the compound event in the 2028 Olympics. Till then I will strengthen my preparations.

To shift to the recurve, I have to start all over again, which is not possible now. I will try to qualify for the 2028 Olympic Games and win a medal for the country.

How was the journey behind this success?

My father runs a private school in the village. We live in Nagpur. Mother is the principal of the school. I was busy with my preparations. Then there was a lockdown due to the Corona epidemic. Everything was closed and practice stopped. There was a ban on going out too, there was a lot of curbing. In such a situation, I told my parents that I will go to the village and practice, so they agreed.

Then I practiced in my village for 6-7 months. There used to be more power cuts. He used to cook food himself along with the school watchman. The people of the village used to comment that the school owner's son lives alone like this, but I did not pay attention.

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