Bhubaneswar Buzz

Odisha Teenager Ranjit Naik eyeing 2020 Olympics included in Target Olympic Podium scheme

Ranjit Naik archery odisha bhubaneswar buzz

Meet Ranjit Naik – a village boy from backward Bhuyia tribe in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, who has now been included in the Sports Ministry’s ambitious Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme with an eye on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic.

Boarding a train was his ever-time dream. He could first fulfil that when he got selected for the mini sub-junior national that was held in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijaywada in 2010 and won a bronze medal there in the mini-national archery championship. He was just 13-years-old then.

Meet Ranjit Naik – a village boy from backward Bhuyia tribe in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj district, who has now been included in the Sports Ministry’s ambitious Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme with an eye on the 2020 Tokyo Olympic.

WHO IS RANJIT NAIK
  1. Naik is a first year graduation student and hails from an impoverished rural pocket that is also known as a dreaded Maoist-hit region in Odisha.
    His coach Rajesh Hasdak spotted him when Naik wuring a fun session with friends when Naik was using catapult in the campus to catch ripe mangoes from a tree. Hasdak had immediately invited Naik for the regular process of selecting players for Archery and picked him up among 200 young participants.
    Naik did not give in to his financial limitations and started working hard to achieve to the top by taking advanced training in archery. The hardest luck was that he had to lose his native home in Cyclone Phailin that year but he never quit.
    1. In 2013, he got selected to play for World Youth Archery Championship in China. Strong-headed Naik decided to support his parents by giving them financial support which he got in Wuxi, China as pocket money so that his parents could re-build their village home. After that, he never had to look back.
    2. In 2014, again he was selected to represent India in 2nd Asian Grand Prix that was held at Taipei, China and bagged Silver medal. He also participated in World Cup stage-1 Archery Championship in May, 2015 in Shanghai, China and World cup stage-2 Archery Championship in Antalia, Turkey.

This was first published in India Today

Comments

comments