Atanu Das: A young archer who fought hard in his first Olympic

Atanu Das was selected by the Archery Association of India (AAI) to represent India at the Rio Olympics in the men's recurve occasion after he had an extraordinary show at the trials in Bangalore. He was the member from India in the men's categories at the Games. And Rio was his first Olympics.

According to his profile on WorldArchery.org, Atanu is a right-handed archer and his arrows are 28" long while his draw weight is 37.5 lbs.

Atanu Das failed (Friday, August 12th) to capitalize on the important occasion of his men's pre-quarterfinal match, after which the Indian archers lost the campaign in the Olympic Games. Amid the rain, Atanu lost to the world number eight South Korean archer Lee Seung-yun to 4-6 who helped his team to clinch gold medal in the event.

However, the performance of the Indian archer, August 12 was not bad but he failed to redeem two good opportunities. The Korean archers, while making perfect hat trick won first set 30-28. However, this did not affect the Indian archer's morale and he got the equal number of three from 10 points, winning the second set by 30 – 28. The third set was tie, in which Atanu got the chance, but he could not make any progress in it. Lee got the lead in the fourth set.

In the deciding and fifth set, Atanu and Lee were at par with 19-19 after the first two shots. Lee raised 9 points in his last arrow and Atanu was better to make one point to reach the shoot off. But Atanu was able to raise 9 points in that, the fifth set was tied 28-28, which was not enough to save the match.

For someone, who was competing in his first-ever Olympics, Das showcased a lot of maturity while holding his nerves in pressure situations. He had finished fifth in the ranking rounds with a career-best score of 683. He defeated Nepal's Jitbahadur Muktan 6-0 and Cuba's Andres Perez 6-4 to make the pre-quarters.

Family background

Atanu who made his international debut at the age of 16 hails from Kolkata. His father runs a hotel in Puri. Atanu's father wanted him to pursue sports in his career therefore, he chose archery as he believes that the game requires an individual responsibility for loosing and winning. The youngster is currently working with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited in Kolkata.

Being an experienced campaigner of the sport, Atanu has represented the country in two World Cups. In 2013 World Cup, he won a silver medal in the team event and a bronze medal in the mixed pair event. In the 2014 World Cup in Medellin, he had bagged a team silver medal and a bronze in the mixed pair category.

Past record:

Gold medal in Recurve Men’s Individual, 2011 Asian Grand Prix in Bangladesh

Gold medal in Recurve Mixed Team, 2011 Asian Grand Prix in Bangladesh

Silver medal in Recurve Mixed Team, 2014 Archery World Cup in Poland

Silver medal in Junior Men’s Team, 2011 World Archery Youth Championships in Poland

Bronze medal in Recurve Mixed Team, 2013 Archery World Cup in Colombia

Bronze medal in Recurve Men’s Team, 2013 Asian Archery Grand Prix in Thailand

Past record

Gold medal in Recurve Men’s Individual, 2011 Asian Grand Prix in Bangladesh

Gold medal in Recurve Mixed Team, 2011 Asian Grand Prix in Bangladesh

Silver medal in Recurve Mixed Team, 2014 Archery World Cup in Poland

Silver medal in Junior Men’s Team, 2011 World Archery Youth Championships in Poland

Bronze medal in Recurve Mixed Team, 2013 Archery World Cup in Colombia

Bronze medal in Recurve Men’s Team, 2013 Asian Archery Grand Prix in Thailand