When the havoc of Kovid-19 was at its peak, the family of scrap worker Rajkumar Jaiswal was able to eat only one meal a day. His shop was closed and soon his house was also submerged in water as Cyclone Amphan ravaged Bengal. The double whammy of coronavirus and the storm, however, did not deter the determination of his daughter Aditi, who recently made it to the Indian archery team for the World Cup, World Championships and Asian Games.
Meanwhile, he also got the support of former Commonwealth Games gold medalist Rahul Banerjee, who is now a full-time coach. Aditi, the daughter of a scrap worker in Baguiati, has been a bright student and scored 97 per cent in her ISC exams, which got her admission in Economics Honors at St. Xavier’s College. Rajkumar and his wife Uma wanted Aditi to focus on studies like her elder brother Adarsh. His elder brother is doing engineering in Vellore. Banerjee then explained to him that Aditi was born to achieve an even greater feat.
Aditi, who returned after participating in the archery trials in Sonepat, told PTI, “There was a time when my father’s shop remained closed for almost two years during the lockdown and we were somehow able to manage only one meal. ”””” He said, ” Our house was flooded due to Amphan and we had to live without electricity for many days. Somehow we came out of these days of struggle and now it seems that good days are back.
Aditi said, “My parents are now convinced that archery also has a future. I hope to continue improving my game. It is every sportsperson’s dream to represent India in the Olympics and win a medal but I still have a long way to go for that.” This is the first time the 20-year-old has made it to India’s first-choice team. Earlier, on the back of gold and silver medals won at the Senior National Championships in Jammu last year, he was selected in the second-choice Indian team for the fourth stage of the World Cup in Medellin, Colombia.
In Medlin, she was eliminated in the first round. There she lost to Deepti Kumari in the individual section while in the team event she had to face defeat from Korea in the second round. Banerjee, who has been coaching Aditi since 2018-19, said, “Her parents were under a lot of pressure on when she would win a medal so that she would get a job easily. I kept telling her to be patient, you cannot become a world champion overnight.” Aditi’s biggest test was the two-stage trials in which she managed to secure her place in the Indian team by finishing among the top four players.
