A day after their miraculous escape from a burning coach of the New Delhi-Dehradun Shatabdi Express, the MP archery team bagged three medals at the 41st junior national championship in Dehradun on Sunday.
The stellar performance of medal-winners Amit Kumar and Sonia Thakur is astonishing considering they lost all equipment in the blaze on the C-5 bogie. They were demoralised, but were given counsel and new equipment and gear on an emergency basis.
‘Coaches, archers sat whole night fine-tuning the new equipment’
I told them (the archers) this (the train fire) was just one of the many challenges you will face in life and you must be strong to overcome it,” said MP sports minister Yashodhara Raje Scindia.

The biggest challenge for the team was to arrange new equipment at such short notice. Scindia directed the officials to provide all necessary equipment to the archers.
“There was only a night before the event. We got the equipment, but they were to be adjusted as it was new for the archers. The coaching staff and archers sat the whole night to tune and familiarize with the equipment,” said MP team chief coach Ricchpal Singh.
The archers said they were determined to prove their mettle. “We got very little sleep. It was a big responsibility on our shoulders to prove that MP archers can do wonders even in odd conditions. We did it,” said 17-year-old jubilant Amit, who is a class 10 student.
“It was tough as we slept little due to the fire incident nightmare. However, I was determined to prove that even in such conditions we can win medals,” said 16-year-old Sonia, a class 9 student.
In the girls’ recurve category, Sonia Thakur gave Madhya Pradesh a silver medal with 642 points. In the boys’ recurve event, Amit shot 665 points for a bronze medal to MP. In the recurve mixed team event, the pair of Sonia and Amit won silver for the state.