Gora Ho, a teenager from the tribal belt of Jharkhand, won gold partnering Akash and Gaurav Lambe in the team recurve event at the Asia Cup. The trio beat Mongolia’s Adiyasuren Baasankhuu, Otgonbold Baatarkhuyag and Gantugs Jantsan 27-26 in the tie-breaker to clinch the third gold for India. Earlier Muskan Kirar and Promila Daimary won gold in Women’s Compound and Women’s Recurve event respectively.
The ‘golden boy’ from hails from Balijhudi village in Rajnagar. Ho, who is the son of a paralytic father and a homemaker mother, was discovered by coaches at the Dugni Archery Academy in Seraikela. Since then, he has won more than 100 medals in sub-junior and junior events at the state and national levels. Gora was awarded a special bow that cost Rs 2.70 lakh last year by the Jharkhand government.
Currently, Gora is enlisted as a cadet at Army Boys Club in Pune. With the medal at the Asia Cup, Ho is dreaming big- aiming for a medal in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Though the 17-year-old has a long way to go before he can realistically fight for Olympic medals, Ho’s coach from the academy, B Srinivas Rao, is confident his ward is meant for the global stage.
