She might be writing a history paper as part of her BA Second year exams tomorrow but Keerti Sharma admits it is hard to concentrate on the text book in front of her. Studying is the last thing on her mind right now. She’s coming off an emotional high, having won on Monday, the Indian selection trials to pick the Indian women’s recurve archery team for the Asian Games.
“It’s hard to stay focussed. I keep pinching myself thinking about the fact that I am going to the Asian Games. I still find it hard to believe!,” the Kurukshetra University student tells Sportstar.
At 19-years-old, Keerti will also be the youngest member of the squad but she didn’t have it easy. Over the four day trials, Keerti finished ahead of far more accomplished rivals – beating Asian games medallist Simranjit Kaur, four time Olympian Deepika Kumari and subsequently, Olympic semifinalists Ankita Bhakat – to seal her spot in the three member Indian team (alongside Bhakat and Kumkum Mohod) that will compete in Tokyo in September.
Even as she sits with her books in front of her, Keerti says she can’t help but think of how unlikely her journey has been.
While her performance in the trials might have left little to chance, luck had plenty of a role to play in her journey as an archer in the first place. Growing up in Retauli, a village in Haryana’s Jind district, Keerti’s first priority had been studies. When she was in the fourth grade, her father had even got her admitted to a private school near Jind.
Until she was in the 8th grade, Keerti’s only experience of sport was the odd running event. Then fortuitously, the school decided to introduce archery.
The program was started by former national level archer Uddham Singh. Originally from Uttar Pradesh, -- he had started the program almost as an afterthought. having just completed his diploma from the national institute of sport and having some time on his hands before he joined the sports authority of India as a coach. “I was actually just waiting to start my job when I was introduced to someone from this school near Jind. At first I wasn’t sure because I wasn’t sure how much time I could give there but eventually I agreed because they were even fine with me coming down to Jind on the weekend to coach,” he recalls.
Although she’d never had anything to do with archery, Keerti recalls being smitten. “At first I used to watch the senior students shoot and I thought I wanted to do this as well,” she recalls.
She had no great ambitions then. “The day I went for my first class, I remember just liking it. I had no knowledge about what the future looked like, what it took to be a top archer or even how expensive the sport was. Bas chalane ka man tha,” she recalls.
Undoubtedly the sport was expensive. Six months after she started shooting-- using an Indian bow made out of bamboo – Keerti decided to shoot with a fiberglass limbed recurve bow. It cost Rs. 60,000.
It was a serious expense for Keerti’s father who was a farmer but ultimately, agreed to purchase it. “I didn’t realise a bow was going to be that expensive and I only have about 2 killa (acre) of land. But I’ve always been clear that I won’t spare any expense when it comes to my children’s future. I was already spending a lot of money on her education so when I had to spend something on her archery, I never thought of saying no. I went to the arhtiya (moneylender) and took out a loan to buy the bow,” he says her father Vijay Sharma.
While it was a serious financial investment, Vijay didn’t burden his daughter with any expectations. “I didn’t spend the money thinking she was going to qualify for the Asian Games or anything. She had a ruchi (interest) in archery and that was enough for me,” he says.
Fresh start
Indeed at first, there didn’t seem to be anything that marked Keerti out as a special talent. “I won a silver medal at a district tournament but there were only four competitors in that competition and I participated in a state junior competition without winning anything,” she says. Some of this was due to the nature of her training. Coach Uddham Singh would only come down to Jind on weekends and more than a year’s training had already been disrupted due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
But in 2022, Keerti caught a break. Uddham had started coaching at the Sports Authority of India training center in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. He was looking to induct a set of youngsters and called her for selection trials. Keerti wasn’t the finished product but that’s not what he was looking for. “I was looking to coach someone from the basic level rather than someone who was already stuck from a technical level. Keerti is not what you consider a natural shooter. She had to be built. But she was open to learning and she had the willingness to work hard,” says Uddham.
Over the next couple of years, Uddham says he coached Keerti with a specific focus on being able to shoot in windy conditions by aiming away from the yellow center of the target. “Everyone can shoot well when there’s no wind and you have to aim at the two yellow rings (10 and 9 rings in the center of the target). But the challenge is when the wind makes the arrow move in the air. Then you have to aim away from the center and predict that the trajectory will take your arrow to the center,” he says.
It was at the Hazaribagh center that Keerti says she seriously started her career as an archer. “Until then I was satisfied with playing at state competitions. But I learned there’s a level above that as well and I got motivated to increase my own level so I could compete there. I learned discipline and what archery is all about,” she says.
Two years after she started, things started falling in place. Late in 2024, she competed at the Inter University Championships where she won gold in the women’s team event, silver in the individual and bronze in the mixed team event. A month later, she competed in her first national selection trials and qualified for her first international tournaments – two legs of the Asia Cup and a world ranking tournament – and then followed that up with her first senior national medal at the National Games.
Learning from experience
Although she didn’t medal in her first international tournaments, Keerti says she grew from that experience. “Not everyone who takes up a sport can become an international athlete. I started believing that I too have that potential. My mindset started becoming stronger. Kaafi himmat mili (I got a lot of courage),” she says.
That self belief remained in place this year too, despite the results not always being in her favour. At the two selection trials for the first two stages of the World Cups this year, Keerti finished fifth – just outside the top four who made the Indian team. “I was a little disappointed but Uddham sir always told me that if I keep working hard, the result would come sooner or later,” she says.
At the selection trials for the Asian Games, that’s exactly what happened. While winning the trials is reward enough, Keerti says what satisfied her even more is the fact that she was able to compete with and eventually beat some of the top archers in the country including Deepika Kumari and Bhakat who would have been brimming with confidence having recently toppled South Korea at the World Cup Stage 2 in China last week. Conditions had been unusually windy in Sonepat over the past few days and while that had troubled most of her competitors, Keerti had thrived.
“Because I don’t have a lot of experience as an archer, I don’t always know what it’s like to compete with big players like Deepika didi and Ankita didi. But I was able to compete with and beat both of them in the trials and that gives me a lot of confidence,” she says.
Now having got the chance to compete on the biggest platform of her career, Keerti is looking to build on that self belief. “I need to build my self belief even more. I will meet even bigger players internationally. I have to match their level,” she says. She’ll get her chance soon enough at the World Cup stage 3 that begins in Antalya in Turkey next month. For now though, Keerti will try her best to keep her mind on her college curriculum. “After the history exam, I have a political science paper to complete before I compete in Antalya. But my real exam will come at the Asian Games. I’ve come to this level but I want to keep going at this level,” she says.
Published on May 19, 2026