Ankita Bhakat

Born on 17 June 1998 in Kolkata, Ankita Bhakat is a recurve archer from India. She is an integral member of the national recurve team of the nation and participates in the individual, women’s team and mixed team events.

Born to a milkman Shantanu Bhakat, Ankita gained interest in the sport at the age of ten after witnessing an archery competition in her hometown. Eventually, she got enrolled in the Calcutta Archery Club to get her initial training. However, she didn’t own the archery equipment due to financial constraints during her initial archery career.

In 2014, she was picked up by the Tata Archery Academy (TAA) in Jamshedpur, where she trained under some leading archers of the country.

Here are some of her major career achievements:

• Won a gold medal in the team event and a bronze medal in the mixed team event at the 2021 Guatemala City Hyundai Archery World Cup Stage 1
• Bagged the gold medal in mixed team event and silver medal in the team event at the Bangkok 2019 Asia Cup Leg 1
• Secured the silver medal in 2019 at the Asian Continental Qualification Tournament for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, losing from her compatriot Deepika Kumari in the final
• Won a gold medal in recurve junior mixed team category at the 2017 World Youth Archery Championships, partnering with Jemson Singh Ningthoujam
• Bagged gold medals in women’s individual recurve event and team event at the 2016 Asia Cup-World Ranking Tournament, Stage 2
• Earned a bronze and a silver medal at the 2015 Seoul International Youth Archery Festa in girl’s individual recurve and girl’s recurve team event, respectively