City girl Divya Dhayal believes in keeping calm in crunch situations to earn a medals at highest level
Pune: Keeping calm in crunch situations earns you medals and that’s what young archer from the city, Divya Dhayal, learnt from her recent victory in the Archery World Cup Stage 2 event in Turkey.
Divya clinched a bronze medal in compound mixed event partnering Abhishek Verma recently.
“I was the part of women’s team which lost to Italy in a bronze medal. I was scared during women’s team match, I don’t know why but it was hard to focus. After that event I resolved to keep calm and focus if I had to win a medal,” Divya told Sakal Times in an interview.
“I want to give my best. That was the only thing which was going on in my mind and I managed to deliver a good performance and earned the bronze medal.”
Archery runs in the veins of Divya as her father, Col Vikram Dhayal, also used to play the sport and now coaches young archers. Along with Divya, her sisters Nitu, Kushbhu and brother Digvijay are also archers.
For Divya, streak of winning medals began in February when she won one gold and one silver medal in Junior Nationals.
Divya then came out with much-improved performance in senior nationals where she won gold in the individual and mixed events.
“During Asia Cup, I lost a close bronze medal match against Chinese Taipei. After Asia Cup, Divya was selected for Archery World Cup Stage 1 in China where Men’s compound team won gold, but medals eluded Divya.
“I performed much better in China but did not win any medal. I lost medals by a close margin.”
At the World Cup Stage 2, Indian team continued medal-less journey throughout before earning a bronze medal in the mixed category event.
“If I look at my performance in both the World Cup stages, I am happy the way things went, but I will definitely come out with more improved performance.
Divya will now travel for Asia Cup, which will be held in Taiwan from July 3.
“After Asia Cup, my main target would be to get selected for the World Championship for seniors (in Mexico) and Sub Jr worlds (in Argentina).
