Growing up in rural Maharashtra, Pravin Sawant was 17 years old when he became obsessed with archery. Lack of resources prevented Sawant, who worked as a ward boy in a hospital as a youngster, from becoming the archer he wanted to be, but now is the time for him to take a bow as a coach responsible for one of India archery’s greatest campaigns at the Asian Games.
The 31-year-old from Satara, who is now a Maharashtra Police constable, can be credited for being the hand behind seven medals in compound archery — five of them gold — at Hangzhou in China.
On the night before the final day of the archery competition, Sawant went to bed in the Games Village with one dream. With India on the cusp of winning a historic 100 medals, Sawant hoped the honour would go to one of the students from his academy.
