Atanu Das began his journey at a neighborhood club Kolkata Archery Club in the northern part of the city.
Athlete Name: Atanu Das
Age: 29
Discipline: Archery
Past milestones:
The 29-year-old Arjuna award winner Atanu Das started playing at the age of 14 and graduated to the elite level in the Tata Archery Academy in 2008. Atanu competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics but could not get the desired result.
Das won 3 Bronze medals at the 2013 Asian Archery Grand Prix held in Thailand. One individual Bronze in Recurve men’s individual and the other 2 Bronze medals in Recurve Mixed Team and Recurve Men’s Team.
Atanu Das won a Bronze medal at the 2013 Archery World Cup in the Recurve Mixed Team. A year later, Das won a Silver and Bronze in Recurve Men’s Team and Mixed Team respectively at the 2014 Archery World Cup held in Medellin and a Silver in Recurve Men’s Team held in Wroclaw.
He worked on himself to come back as a better archer and claimed the men’s team silver medal along with Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav in the World championships in the Netherlands in 2019 to book a team quota place in the Olympics. He improved further to win his maiden World Cup individual gold medal in Guatemala this year and another gold with wife Deepika in mixed team event in World Cup-III in Paris.
Family background:
The Kolkata based archer was born to Amit Das and Arati Das, did his schooling from Baranagar Narendranathn Vidyamandir in Kolkata. He began his journey at a neighborhood club, Kolkata Archery Club, in the northern part of the city. His father Amit Das says he took a risk in putting Atanu in archery but his son showed promise early. He also holds a degree in BA (Hons) from Vinayaka Mission University in Salem, Tamil Nadu.
Trivia:
Atanu Das is currently employed at Bharat Petroleum Sports Promotion Board. He’s married to Deepika Kumari, a fellow archery player and erstwhile World no.1.
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