Away from the din of the Hudco crossing, a lush green, walled compound in an Ultadanga lane is where an Olympic sport is being practised round the year in silence. This is the Kolkata Police ground where the KP Dola Rahul Banerjee Academy operates since 2021. The students range from international medallists to youngsters starting out. The academy has just added another laurel to its crown. Its chief coach and director, Rahul Banerjee, has been named the coach of the national women’s recurve team last week.
A resident of Mahisbathan in Sector V since 2016, Rahul is a Commonwealth Games gold medallist who played in the 2012 Olympics. “I thought of starting a facility soon after I returned from the Olympics,” says the 38-year-old, who came into archery on the footsteps of his elder sister Dola, a two-time Olympian, having played the Games in 2004 and 2008.
The Dola Rahul Banerjee Academy was registered in 2014. While the academy started at Rabindra Sarovar in 2019, not far from Dola’s Kasba home, the Ultadanga facility took off later, in September 2021, when Rahul turned to coaching. “It was the then city police commissioner Soumen Mitra who urged us to use the ground. It is ideally located as, because of the proximity to Bidhannagar Road rail station, we get students from even Barasat and Sonarpur,” he said.
One such student is Samacksh Kumar Shaw, a 19-year-old from Agarpara, who is in his second month of training. “I start from home at 6am and take the 6.30am train,” he said.
Shooting next to him with a smaller wooden bow was a girl barely reaching his waist in height. Rai Debnath might be only nine years old but she has been shooting arrows for a year and half. “She loved watching Ramayana on TV and wanted her own bow since she was six years old. I was not sure if the Sports Authority of India trains children so young but luckily found this place right next door. There is a range of sporting activities on offer for children at Bidhan Sishu Udyan across the road but she was bent on archery,” said her mother Soma Debnath, a resident of the KMDA Abasan at Hudco More. Rai has already played in a state-level tournament in her age group.
Archery kit is not readily available for beginners but the academy acts as facilitator. Rai’s Indian bow cost Rs 6,500 while a set of six wooden arrows costs Rs 500, her mother said. “You can reuse the arrows till they crack.”
Rahul Banerjee checks out the Archery Asia Cup silver medal won by his student Juyal Sarkar
Aneek Chakraborty, a 12-year-old from New Alipore, has been training here for four years and has already got his own branded recurve bow. “My set of a dozen arrows cost Rs 12,000. They are made of carbon fibre. Our coaches help in cutting them to the size suited for me. Then the nock and the fletching have to be added. One is for stability and the other to attach to the string of the bow. The point is also separately attached,” he explained.
Aneek’s Fivics recurve bow is second hand, costing Rs 85,000, while the rest of the gear, including the arrows, is new and cost another Rs 45,000.
Rahul pointed out that bows have to be personalised as well as arrows. “The length of arrows depends on the player’s arm length,” he said. “Men use heavier bows.”
Little Rai’s idol is Deepika Kumari, the four-time Olympian and former World no. 1. As luck would have it, Deepika and her husband Atanu Das, also an Olympian, have both joined the Ultadanga academy.
“Atanu and I were commentating on TV for the 2024 Olympics. They used to train in Pune in those days. I offered to work with him for a month at my academy. Both of them joined in August 2024. Within a month, Atanu won a medal. Deepika too became the national champion.
Since then, except one tournament, she has not returned empty-handed from anywhere,” he said. As coach, Rahul said he had brought about changes in the approach of the star archer couple, who now stay at Urbana.
“Atanu did not believe in gymming beyond light workouts. I introduced him to proper exercise. Though they are elite athletes, their lifestyle, system, diet — everything had to be fine-tuned and the transformation is there to see,” Rahul said. Possibly, that earned him a call-up for national duty.
All-round approach
The academy has a gym, as well as a strength and conditioning trainer and a nutritionist. The day starts with the national anthem at 7am, followed by physical training, that includes running, cardio and yoga. After archery practice, residential students hop over to the hostel canteen next door for lunch. Practice resumes at 3pm. Thrice a week, there is gym or strength and conditioning sessions.
“Our target is to deliver in 2028,” says the national coach, with his eyes on the upcoming Olympics in the US, as he discusses the team he has been put in charge of. “A 15-year-old from Maharashtra, Gatha Khadke, has made it to the national team. I have to create a combination of two senior players in Deepika and Ankita Bhakat along with the new-comer who is half their age. It will be a blend of experience and youth. It helps that due to her youth, Gatha will not be burdened by the weight of expectations.”
Another major target is the Asian Games in 2026 in Japan. But his first assignment will be the Archery World Cup Stage 4 in Madrid from July 8, followed by the World Archery Championships in Korea in September. “We will be going to Korea 20 days in advance for practice,” he said.
Rearing talent
In the meantime, he is revelling in the success of his student Juyel Sarkar, a find of the Bengal Archery Academy, which too had started with the Banerjee siblings as consultants in 2008 after they had met the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who was then the Union rail minister.
Juyel, who now practises at Ultadanga, has won a silver medal as a member of the recurve men’s team at the Archery Asia Cup in Singapore. Another promising student at his academy is Baguiati girl Aditi Jaiswal.
“I am also the university team coach. Aditi, enrolled at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology in Odisha, will be going for the World University Games in Germany from July 22. Students come from other states as well.
“Two sisters are from Chennai. There are students from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh... Someone just joined from Pune. We have our own hostel, which Kolkata Police have allowed us to use,” said Mehebub Mostafa, a former senior research officer for Sports Authority of India who was part of the Olympic 2020 support team.
Stress on practice
Training takes place under the supervision of chief coach Nisith Das and his assistants. Only Monday is closed. Practice takes place both in morning and afternoon sessions. Holidays are rare.
“This is because if there is no practice or if the practice is unsupervised, some minor error may creep into the technique. Also without practice, muscle memory will be obliterated. The bow may seem tighter when resuming on the eighth day after even a week’s gap. So shooting at least 100 arrows is a must every day,” said Dola, who is more involved with the Rabindra Sarovar branch but sometimes drops by at Ultadanga.
Training is offered in Indian bow, compound and recurve. “We assess students on the basis of anthropomorphic features — draw length, eyesight, body flexibility etc. Handling a compound bow also needs more power. A student is assigned a bow accordingly,” said Mostafa.
The monthly fee is Rs 2,000 for those over 10 years of age and Rs 1,250 for younger ones. Rahul is trying to introduce archery in schools as well. “We are in charge of the course at Sushila Birla Girls’ School and Birla High School in central Calcutta but no school in this area is offering archery training as yet,” he informed.
The introduction of a physical education paper by the Central Board of Secondary Education for classes XI and XII, with 30 marks devoted to practical training, has boosted the interest of schools in sports, he said.
The Khelo India scholarships worth Rs 6 lakh annually from the Central government and the Khelo India Youth Games are also great motivations for students who do well in sports. “I want more urban players to join so that children are drawn away from the addiction of mobile phones,” said Rahul, himself the father of a fiveyear old.