At three, Adarsh Kumar made his first bow and arrow from sticks he gathered with his uncle in Usas, a small village in Bihar. Inspired by the Ramayana, he would imagine himself as Ram or Lakshman, “taking aim at tree trunks and rocks.” When he was seven, his uncle introduced him to local archery competitions, turning a childhood pastime into much more. “I had no professional equipment or formal training back then. I just enjoyed shooting arrows,” he says. Today, at 17, Adarsh is a national level archer who won a gold at the 2025 national championship.
After his father, a government schoolteacher, died, Adarsh moved to Gaya, where he joined the Magadh Archery Foundation’s training centre. His mother works as a government clerk. Support from the Foundation and RC Gaya City, RID 3250, has helped him continue both his education and sporting career. The club arranged his admission to the Nazareth Academy in Gaya, and is paying his school fees, allowing him to focus on archery without giving up his studies.
The support was given to Adarsh as his performance improved. He won a bronze in an under-14 state-level competition in 2022, followed by gold and silver medals in the under-17 category in subsequent years. In 2025, he added another gold to his record at the national level. He is not the only young archer making progress at the centre. Poonam Singh (15), has been selected by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) as one of 10 archers from across the country for a specialised training camp in Turkey. RC Gaya City has also facilitated admissions at the Kendriya Vidyalaya school for state-level champions Ranveer Raj and Saloni Raj, training at the archery centre.
“The club’s support allows young athletes to pursue sports without giving up their education. Their success depends not just on winning medals, but also on access to schooling, family support and the resources needed to continue training,” says archery coach Jai Prakash.
In 2022, he had approached the club’s executive secretary Ratan Kumar for help in developing the archery facility in Gaya. Kumar, who was a state-level cricketer, approached his club and a trust was established to manage the initiative. The local government sanctioned an open ground for the training centre where the club helped construct a shed. PDG Sanjeev Thakur then donated ₹50,000 to the centre; PDG S P Bagaria gifted bicycles to 12 trainees. In 2025, the club contributed ₹1.51 lakh for the development of the archery ground and other facilities.
Club members have also sponsored jerseys, while the club and the Foundation provided bows, water bottles and backpacks to the students. On International Women’s Day, new bows were presented to two young girl archers, Saloni and Vaishnavi Karan. “Such support matters because archery is an expensive sport. A professional bow-and-arrow set can cost as much as ₹5 lakh. The centre sponsors basic sets costing ₹40,000, and only one student so far has received a set worth ₹80,000,” says Kumar. For families “who must weigh the cost of equipment against school expenses and other household needs, such purchases can be difficult to manage. Providing equipment allows children to train.”
The centre currently trains 86 children, aged three to eighteen, many from underprivileged backgrounds. “Selection is based on a child’s interest and potential, along with consistency in attendance and performance,” says the coach.
The centre has an Interact club since 2025. Interactors save small amounts of money in piggy banks and use the savings for social causes. They have taken part in tree planting activities and organised celebrations on Teachers’ Day and Holi. The Interact club is supported by club members Raj Kumar Dubey, Dr Ratan Kumar and Vijay Bhalotia. Kumar points out that “the intention is to help young people see themselves not only as athletes receiving support, but also as members of a community in which they can contribute.”
Prakash, who is a Level Two qualified archery coach with the Bihar State Sports Authority in Patna, received the Bihar Government’s Best Coach Award in 2024 and 2025, each carrying a cash prize of ₹2 lakh. “He used part of the award money to buy equipment for the centre. Under his guidance, Gaya emerged the overall champion at the Raja Karna State-Level Archery Championship in Patna in 2024. Competing against 400 archers, the Gaya team won nine gold, eight silver and 10 bronze medals. Confident of winning the Best Coach Award again this year, Prakash says his bigger dream is to see his students win an Olympic gold medal. Kumar describes the centre as a “champions centre. Watching them practise, I am sure an Olympic medal is a certainty,” he says with conviction.
At a state-level school championship in Bhagalpur, Magadh region archers from the centre won 21 medals (nine gold, six silver and six bronze, across three age categories). At the Mini National Archery Championship in March 2026, the Foundation’s archers won two gold and one bronze medals.
The foundation hopes to send three students to South Korea for specialised archery training. As the cost is high, the club is seeking support from Rotary clubs in India and South Korea. “Young archers need regular coaching, good equipment, opportunities to compete and financial support to travel,” adds Kumar.