Ankita Bhakat (born 17 June 1998) is an Indian recurve archer. Bhakat competed at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she finished fourth in the recurve mixed team event after losing the bronze medal match.
Bhakat was born on 17 June 1998 in Kolkata, West Bengal, to parents Shantanu Bhakat, a milkman, and Shila Bhakat.
She took up archery when she was ten, attending the Calcutta Archery Club for initial training. She joined the Tata Archery Academy at Jamshedpur in 2014, where she trained under Dharmendra Tiwari, Purnima Mahato and Ram Awdesh.
Based on her performance during the trials conducted by the Archery Association of India (AAI), Bhakat was selected to compete, as a part of the Indian national team, in the 2015 World Archery Youth Championships in Yankton, South Dakota in the United States. However, a week prior to the event, India withdrew as 18 people from their delegation did not receive visas for the US.
In the 2015 Seoul International Youth Archery Festa, held from 3 to 9 September in Seoul, Bhakat was part of the team that won two medalsâÂÂa bronze in the girl's individual recurve competition and a silver in the girl's recurve team event. At the Indoor Archery World Cup (Stage 2), held from 10 to 11 December 2016 in Bangkok, Bhakat competed in the women's individual recurve competition where she defeated Prachi Singh 6âÂÂ2 in an all-Indian first round match, but lost 0âÂÂ6 to Jeon Hunyoung in the pre-quarter-finals.
Bhakat competed in the women's individual and women's recurve team events at the 2017 Asia Cup (Stage 2) held in Bangkok. In the former, she reached the quarter-finals, losing 2âÂÂ6 to compatriot Deepika Kumari, whereas in the latter, she won a silver medal with her teammates, Promia Daimary and Sakshi Rajendra Shitole, losing 0âÂÂ6 to Chinese Taipei in the final. That same month, she took part in the women's recurve competition at the 37th edition of the Indian Senior National Championships in Faridabad. She made it to the finals, losing 6âÂÂ2 to Deepika Kumari.
Bhakat also competed at the 2017 Asia Cup (Stage 3) World Ranking Tournament, held from 4 to 9 July 2017 in Chinese Taipei, in three eventsâÂÂwomen's individual, women's team and mixed team. She won the bronze medal in the mixed team event with her partner Mukesh Boro. Later that year, she was among the 24 members who were selected to compete for the Indian national team in the 2017 World Archery Youth Championships at Rosario, Argentina following the completion of their training at Sonipat, Haryana.
At the World Youth Archery Championships, Bhakat competed in the recurve junior mixed team event with her partner Jemson Singh Ningthoujam, and together they were seeded ninth. The pair won the gold medal after defeating the Russian team 6âÂÂ2 in the final, thus giving India its fourth overall world youth championships title and its first since Deepika Kumari won it in 2009 and 2011. They had defeated the top-seeded Korean team 5âÂÂ4 in the quarter-final and the Ukrainian team 6âÂÂ0 in the semi-final, respectively, en route to the final.
In April 2018, Bhakat competed at the 2018 Archery World Cup held from 23 to 29 April in Shanghai, China in the women's individual, women's team and the mixed team recurve events. In the individual recurve event, she was seeded eighth, after having scored 665 out of 720 points in the qualifications round. She defeated compatriot Bombayla Devi Laishram 6âÂÂ4 in the third round, but lost 4âÂÂ6 to China's An Qixuan in the fourth round. She teamed up with Promila Daimary and Deepika Kumara in the women's team event and with Atanu Das in the mixed team event, reaching the quarter-finals of both events before losing 1âÂÂ5 and 4âÂÂ5 to the Chinese and United States teams respectively.
Subsequently, in May 2018, Bhakat competed in the women's individual and women's recurve team events at the 2018 Archery World Cup â Stage 2 held in Antalya, Turkey. In the latter event, she teamed up with Promila Daimary and Deepika Kumari, and eventually reached the semi-finals by defeating the French and the Russian teams 5âÂÂ3 and 5âÂÂ1 in the second round and quarter-finals, respectively. In the semi-final, however, the Indian team lost 2âÂÂ6 to the South Korean team. Subsequently, they faced Chinese Taipei in the bronze medal match, losing 2âÂÂ6.
Bhakat made her first Olympic appearance in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. She lost 4-6 to Poland's Wioleta Myszor in the Women's Individual 1/32 Elimination Round. Bhakat advanced to the quarterfinals in the Women's Team, along with Bhajan Kaur and Deepika Kumari. However, the team lost to the Netherlands' team 0-6. Bhakat made history, with Dhiraj Bommadevara by competing in India's first-ever Olympic medal in archery in the Mixed Team Bronze Medal Match, but lost 2-6 to the United States of America's team.