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Akash, a 15-year-old boy has made the country proud by winning a silver at the Youth Olympics 2018 held in Buenos Aires. India is currently experiencing it’s the best run in the Youth Olympics till now.
A farmer’s son, Akash lost his final match to the USA’s archer Trenton Cowles. The scoreline was rather one-sided and seemed like Akash struggled a bit due to the wind. The final score was 0-6 which is obviously not our talented archer would have thought about. On the other hand, Trenton seemed in his best form, scoring only in 9s and 10s. And hence, the match was wrapped up sooner than expected. Akash was seeded 5th after the qualification round whereas Trent was seeded 15th.
Both the archers shot 4 perfect 10s in the three-setter. But Akash’s 2 unfortunate 6s in the first and third set were a little off-putting and so became the deciding factor for the match.
Six years ago, Akash took up archery when Manjeet Malik, an archery coach chose him during a trial.
“I have trained in the wind, but here it was too much. I was waiting for an opportunity but he (Cowles) was stronger and I had no chance,” Akash told PTI.
The consistency of the American archer was definitely what led him to win the game.
Past Achievements
- Akash Malik was a part of the gold medalist recurve boys team at the under-14 archery championship in Vijayawada (2014)
- In 2017 Youth Olympics qualifying event, Akash earned a gold for himself
- In this last one year, he has managed to earn quite a few medals like a gold at the Asia cup Stage- I, 2 bronze medals in Asia Cup Stage- II and a silver in the South Asian Championship
- Malik is currently under the training of coach Kim Hagyong at the Army Sports Institute in Pune
