Subhashis Padhi
Maneswar: Though the stroke of fate compelled him to don the hat of a night watchman in a local school, the 50-year-old expert archer still follows a dream to produce Olympians in archery.
Meet Mitrabhanu Mohapatra of Jujumura village in Sambalpur district who has been sharpening the archery skills of budding talents for the last 15 years using his own resources. His commitment to the game was so intense that he preferred to remain a bachelor so that he can devote more time to groom quality archers.
Mitrabhanu’s quest to produce Olympians in archery has all the ingredients of making a Bollywood potboiler.
He remains awake whole night to guard the school but spends his month’s earning to buy bow and arrows for the promising talents. He practices hard every day along with his disciples.
Recently, Mitrabhanu took a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh to buy modern sport gears for the trainees. With no availability of proper training ground, he coaches the students on the school ground.
His task is not limited to coaching alone he makes the trainees participate in various competitions across the state. Trained by him, the archery team has competed at contests in places including Cuttack, Phulbani, Baripada, Bhubaneswar, Deogarh and Rourkela at all levels – sub-junior, junior and senior. His students have brought laurels to the district on several occasions.
“There is no dearth of skills in my students but they lack proper sport equipment. With the guidance of a state-level coach and right kind of training, the archers from Sambalpur can make it to the national Olympic team,” said a confident Mitrabhanu.
Earlier, two of his trainees Rashmiranjan Nayak and Balaram Mumutha represented the state at competitions held in Mumbai, Delhi and Jharkhand. Mitrabhanu also spends from his pocket to bear the participation expenses of his students.
Learning about his unaided effort, the district administration came forward with some financial support and a small room was constructed at Jujumura school in 2012. After that, the officials forgot about it. The room is now being used to keep the bows and arrows of the students.
On his special interest in sport, Mitrabhanu said the bows and arrows used by a fellow villager Nimei Charan Budek for hunting inspired him to learn the skill. He excelled in archery with time and made a name after taking part in various competitions. Later, he started providing training to the kids at the school ground since 2002.
So far, he has not received any major government assistance to develop archery skills in interested youths, Mitrabhanu lamented. PNN