Archer couple Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das rope in Rahul Banerjee as coach, eye Olympic medal in Los Angeles

Nurturing the dream of winning an Olympic medal in Los Angeles 2028, the Olympian archer couple of Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das have roped in former international archer Rahul Banerjee as their coach.

Deepika has competed in four Olympics and Atanu has featured in two, though without any success.

Even though both belong to Kolkata, Atanu understood Rahul’s coaching philosophy only recently. “I and Rahul bhai were commentating during the Olympics, when we discussed a few things. I liked his ideas and we started working (in August). Then Deepika joined,” Atanu told Sportstar at the National archery championships here.

“We are approaching the sport with a different mindset. We are doing gap analysis and pushing ourselves against different challenges… The hunger and dream to win an Olympic medal has not diminished,” said Atanu.

Deepika added, “Rahul bhai has identified mistakes which others could not. It’s a good start and I am enjoying it… I could not win an Olympics medal due to my mistakes.”

A medallist in elite international events, Rahul, the younger brother of decorated archer Dola Banerjee, could relate to Deepika-Atanu’s hunger. “We had similar thoughts. I have won medals almost everywhere except for the Olympics.

“There were multiple pieces of advice. For example, Deepika has this issue of ‘let-down’ (drawing the bowstring but not being able to complete the shot) during ranking rounds. It leads to hurrying everything to finish within stipulated time. We have sorted out her ‘blinking’ issue. Atanu had an issue with his left hand,” said Rahul, who runs a fully-equipped facility, DRB Academy, jointly with Dola, in Kolkata.

“The training prepares them well so that they don’t feel the pressure at the Olympics. There was a gap and I am bridging that gap. This is the first trial of what we have done so far,” said Rahul.