Chikitha Taniparthi will begin her campaign at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games on Saturday, 26 September, with the compound archery ranking round. The 21-year-old Indian is making her debut at the Games after narrowly missing out on selection for two previous major events. She now has two very specific rewards in mind: if she wins a medal, she wants to buy her father a new harvester; if she takes gold, she must bring her mentor, Abhishek Verma, the mascot presented to champions on the podium.
Those two gifts represent the relationships that have sustained her career. Her father, Srinivasa Rao, sold the harvester used on the family farm to finance his daughter’s travel and training. Verma was initially the archer whose technique she tried to copy and later the person who helped her develop her own. Chikitha will compete in the women’s team and mixed team elimination rounds on Sunday before beginning the individual competition on Monday. The compound medals will be decided between 30 September and 1 October, when she will have the opportunity to turn those two family promises into more than pre-competition motivation.
A wooden bow behind the family home
Chikitha comes from Sultanpur, a village in the Peddapalli district of Telangana, where her family relies primarily on a three-acre farm for its livelihood. Her father had wanted to pursue sport himself but had to abandon that ambition because of the lack of facilities and resources. When his children showed an interest, he encouraged them to choose an individual discipline in which their results would largely depend on their own performance. Chikitha first tried badminton and practised karate until she earned a black belt. She discovered archery in eighth grade and began training behind the family home and in nearby fields with basic wooden equipment.
Sultanpur had neither specialist facilities nor anyone capable of showing the family how to develop that initial interest. Srinivasa conducted his own research and travelled with Chikitha and her brother to academies across Maharashtra and Delhi in search of coaching. Hotels and transport cost more than the farm could provide, so he borrowed money and eventually sold the harvester. From 2019, he drove his daughter 23 kilometres every morning to the Police Training Centre in Karimnagar before taking her to school in Nagnoor. While in tenth grade, Chikitha attended classes online and trained once her lessons had finished. Her mother, Sreelata Rao, completed a family support system built around a sport none of them had initially understood.
The archer who copied Verma
The family’s search for a coach led them to Abhishek Verma, one of India’s leading compound archers. Chikitha already regarded him as a role model and tried to reproduce the way he shot. “I used to copy his shooting because I wanted to become like him,” she has explained. Verma initially worked with her for five days, focusing on areas such as her anchor point, positioning and shooting mechanics. That short period produced one of the first visible changes: in 2021, she won individual silver and mixed bronze at the under-16 national championships in Amaravati, results that subsequently earned her a place at the Sports Authority of India -SAI- centre in Sonipat.
After winning that first individual medal, Chikitha told her mentor that the result belonged to everything he had taught her. Verma replied, “It’s you, not me,” encouraging her to recognise her own contribution. Their relationship continued as she progressed towards senior competition and gained another dimension during the Aichi-Nagoya trials. Chikitha ended the opening day in 13th place, but the archer she calls “Abhishek ‘anna’” — an affectionate and respectful way of referring to an older brother — continued to encourage her until she secured one of the three women’s places. Verma, however, failed to qualify for the men’s squad. The student will compete in Japan, while her mentor waits for the mascot he requested if she reaches the top of the podium.
Learning to accept the bad as well
Her qualification followed two almost identical disappointments. Chikitha tied for third place in the trials for the 2023 Asian Games but finished fourth by a margin of 0.25 points. Two years later, she again tied with the third-placed archer and was left out of the squad for the World Championships. “It was disappointing,” she acknowledged. She also lost the opportunity to make her senior international debut at the World Cup in Florida after her visa application was rejected. One sentence sums up how she has learnt to deal with such experiences: “When you accept the good, you also have to accept the bad.”
Her opportunity arrived in August 2025, although the circumstances were far from straightforward. Chikitha and several teammates were stranded at an airport for three days because of an airline strike and reached Winnipeg only six hours before the World Youth Championships began. With no time to adjust to the cold, rain and wind, the Indian advanced to her first international individual final and defeated South Korea’s Park Yerin 142-136. She became the first archer from her country to win the women’s individual under-21 compound world title. Her mother welcomed her home with her favourite chicken dish. Chikitha now combines training in Sonipat with the second year of her university degree and arrives in Japan with another domestic reward in mind: putting a harvester back on the farm after the previous one was sold so that a teenage girl could learn how to shoot.
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