“Right from the age of six, he was fascinated by the sport. But we were struggling financially after the school we were running in Vijayawada was shut down.” Dhiraj’s father Shravan Kumar added, “There were days when relatives and friends would call us ‘pagal’ (mad) for continuing with this sporting dream despite financial problems.”

Their conviction was richly rewarded as the now 24-year-old athlete stunned Lee Woo Seok — the Paris Olympics individual bronze and team gold medalist from South Korea — 7-3 in the final. Hours before that, he paired up with the 17-year-old Kumkum to trump the top-seeded Korean team of Kim Je-deok and Oh Yejin 5-1 in the summit clash.

Dhiraj Bommadevara with his coach Cherukuri Satya Narayana. (Special Arrangement )

Dhiraj is only the third Indian man to win the World Cup recurve gold after Jayanta Talukdar and Atanu Das. Him and Kumkum are the third Indian recurve mixed team pair to clinch top honours at the event after Atanu Das/Deepka Kumari (2021) and Tarundeep Rai/Ridhi Phor in 2022.

Early Signs

Dhiraj’s first archery lessons were at the IGMC Stadium in Vijayawada, where Shravan would take him for fitness classes. Later, he enrolled the kid under coach Cherukuri Satya Narayana and late Cherukuri Lenin, who mentored the silver-bagging Indian compound team at Commonwealth Games 2010, at the Cherukuri Volga Archery Academy.

“Dhiraj was less than three feet tall when he joined our academy in 2006. He would carry his bamboo bow and urge me to hand him the senior one. He could not even lift the 4-4.5 kg bow at that time and I would tell him to wait,” Satya Narayana laughed.

“He won a district U13 championship at the age of eight. During the junior and sub-junior 50m targets, he would regularly shoot 325-335 out of 35 shots and would again tell me to give him the senior bow,” remembered the coach, who lost his daughter Volga in 2004 and later son Lenin, an international archer and a coach.

Dhiraj won the U14 national title at the age of 13, a silver in nationals and a silver in the Asian Outdoor Championships in 2017. That was also the year when things turned financially dire for the family.

But they persisted with the dream. Shravan had undertaken a 20-day course from Archery Association of India (AAI) to be eligible as an AAI technical official and travel with his son. Revathi joined the Cherukuri Volga Academy to support the family.

A young Dhiraj Bommadevara with his first wooden bow. (Special Arrangement)

“When I did the AAI course, archery was the only thing on Dhiraj and my mind. When Dhiraj got a job with Army Sports Institute in Pune and support from Olympic Gold Quest, he bought us a house and also got a new set of ornaments for his mother in 2022, ” said the father.

On Sunday, after annexing the mixed team title, Dhiraj first beat German Moritz Wieser 6-4 in the individual semis after trailing 1-3, and then edged out Seok in the final. On a windy day, Dhiraj struck 19 ten’s out of his 36 shots across the two events, including each of his final shot of the sets in the two finals.

National coach Sonam Bhutia called the talented archer’s performance a big morale-booster ahead of the Asian Games. “Dhiraj kept his calm with winds coming from both left to right and right to left, and adjusted by aiming at the 9’o clock position,” Bhutia said.

Dhiraj said he was now ready for the Asiad challenge. “We did not see who we are competing against here (in Antalya), whether it’s Korea or China. The fight is only with the way we shoot and to aim for consistency. Taking part in the Archery Premier League, the National Ranking Tournament and trials helps an archer like me or Kumkum mentally as well as technically.”