Shantanu Bhakat was delivering milk packets in the neighbourhood of Khatipura in Kolkata on Friday morning when his daughter Ankita was rearranging history. Shantanu was tracking it through a cell phone even while he was on a delivery run.

Ankita had emphatically told him her archery prize money would take care of family expenses. And he needn’t start his day at 4 a.m as he aged. But he had continued with his job.

“When Ankita started archery, the finances were not good. A lot of times, I had to borrow money from my four brothers to manage the expenses of her training as well as travel to the local competitions as well as other cities. Sometimes, I would drop her to training when I would go for the milk delivery and she would be eagerly ready with the bow,” Shantanu told .

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On Friday, all those sacrifices of both father and daughter bore fruit. Ankita, along with Kirti Sharma and Kumkum Mohod, took down an archery heavyweight in the women’s team recurve archery event at the Asian Games.

It was India’s first ever gold at the Asian Games with the complex recurve bow. In the gold medal match against South Korea, the Indian team was deadlocked at 2-2 after the second set, before they won the fourth and tied the fifth to win the title 5-2 at the Okazaki Central Park Multipurpose Square in Japan.

The Koreans had in their midst, Tokyo Olympics team gold medallist and reigning world champion Kang Chae-young, Oh Ye-jin and Lee Yunji. The South Korean women are a juggernaut in the women’s archery team event in particular. At the Paris 2024 Olympics, they won their 10th consecutive women’s team gold at the Olympics, a record that stretches back to Seoul 1988.

Ankita had started archery in 2006 at the local competition in Kolkata’s circus ground before she was picked up by the Tata Archery Academy in 2014.

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“Humne toh 90-100 gharon main milk packets delivery ka kaam kia hai aur abhi bhi karte hain. (We have only known to deliver the milk packets every day to almost 100 houses in the neighbourhood). Ankita would see the archers train at the ground and wanted to pursue the sport. I only told that whatever she wants to do, she will aim to give her best. Sometimes, when I would wake up at 5-30 am in the morning to put the milk packets on the cycle box, Ankita would be ready with her bow and arrows to go for practice,” Shantanu had once said.

After being picked by the Tata Archery Academy in 2014, Ankita would reach the finals in nationals in 2017 before becoming the Khelo India champion in 2022 followed by a team bronze medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games. “When she shifted to the academy, she would share with us about the graphite and carbon bow, which she saw for the first time. Whenever she visited home, she would tell me that papa, I would have my own bow some day, Sometimes, I would borrow money from my four brothers to support her travel too,” Bhakat senior had shared.

She came perilously close to an Olympics medal. At the Paris Olympics in 2024, she finished at the most heartbreaking position for an athlete: fourth place in the recurve mixed team event along with Dhiraj Bommadevara.

On Friday, the 28-year-old Ankita put that hurt behind her when she stood on the top step of the podium, joined by her teenaged teammates, 17-year-old Kumkum and 19-year-old Kirti.