Purnima Mahato, the girl of tribal belt in Eastern India, won the Indian national archery championships and a silver medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. She is hailing from Jamshedpur. She is now an archery coach who represented 2008 Summer Olympics from Indian National Team. She was also selected to coach the team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She was awarded Dronacharya award from President of India for 2013 on 29th August 2013.
Early Life of Purnima Mahato
As a child, Purnima Mahato watched archery at a range in Birsanagar, Jamshedpur. She was trained there before moving to a range at Burmamines, Jamshedpur when the one in Birsanagar closed. She made it to the Indian national team in 1992, and moved to Delhi to train with the Indian National Archery Team.
Sports Career of Purnima Mahato
Purnima Mahato earned medals in both national and international archery competitions. She was also an Indian national champion. At the 1993 International Archery Championship, Purnima Mahato earned a gold medal in the team event.
At the 1994 Pune National Games, she won six gold medals in archery. She competed at the 1994 Asian Games but did not won medal.
In 1997 at the National Championships, Purnima Mahato earned two gold medals and set two national records. She earned a silver medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games also. At the 1999 Indian National Games, Dola Banerjee, an Indian athlete broke the national record which Purnima Mahato had set two years earlier in the 30 metres archery event.
Purnima Mahato is now acting as an archery coach in Indian National Team. From 1994, she coached at the Tata Archery Academy, a position she had held as of 2012. Purnima has personally coached 2012 Summer Olympian Deepika Kumari.
Purnima Mahato has been a coach for Indian national teams at several events, including the 2005 Senior World Outdoor Archery Championship at Spain, where her team earned a silver medal.
Purnima Mahato also coached the Indian side at the 2007 Senior Asian Archery Championship in China. The men`s team she coached finished first and the women`s team she coached finished third. She was also positioned as an assistant coach for India at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Later, Purnima Mahato also coached the Indian side at the 2008 World Cup in Croatia. There her archers earned a silver medal and a bronze medal at the event.
She coached Indian National Team at the 2009 World Youth Archery Championship. She coached three Indian archers at the 2010 Archery World Cup Grand.
Mahato also coached the Indian national team at the 2010 Asian Games, where her archers earned two bronze medals in the individual events. Then, she again coached the Indian national team at the 2010 Commonwealth games, with her archers earning three gold and two bronze medals.
At the Global Sports Summit TURF 2011, Purnima Mahato was named as the coach of the year.
Purnima Mahato got Ram Dayal Munda Award for Best Coach of the year from Government of Jharkhand on Olympic Day Run celebrations, 23 June 2012 at Ranchi.
Purnima Mahato was also selected to represent India at the 2012 Summer Olympics as the national team`s coach.
After that Purnima Mahato was awarded Dronacharya award from President of India for 2013 on 29 August 2013, and she is the first Indian woman to receive this prestigious award in archery.
