Sneha Gope, the daughter of a daily wager notched up first division with a percentage of 65.60 in the matriculation exams, after the declaration of results by the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) last week.

The 15-year-old, a student of Utkramit High School, Dugni, is an example of how to top exams despite all odds.

Gope’s mother cooks mid-day meals at a government school in Chakradharpur, West Singhbhum, and the family finds it difficult to make ends meet, but that has not deterred the girl’s parents to encourage her studies.

The family cut a pastry to celebrate Sneha’s success.

“We are facing an acute financial crunch but it has never been a handicap to promote our daughter in her studies. She has made us very proud,” Basant Gope, Sneha’s father, said over the phone from Chakradharpur.

Her mother Jyotsna said they would have celebrated their daughter’s success in a grand manner but poverty pushed them back.

“Sneha is not just good at her academics. She is also a talented archer who dreams of becoming Deepika Kumari,” she added.

Sneha is a cadet of a government-run archery cradle in Dugni, near Seraikela.

The promising archer said she had worked hard for the exams and was expecting good results.

“I have prepared hard for the matric exams. I was fully focussed. I am over the moon,” she said.

B. Srinivas Rao, chief coach of the Dugni cradle, said Sneha is a promising archer who should make further progress in the game.

“Sheha was inducted into the academy after a selection trial in 2018. She started with the Indian round (shooting with traditional bow and arrow) but switched to the globally acceptable recurve division around six months back,” he said.

“Sneha has won two gold and a bronze medals at the district school archery championship organised last year”, he added.

Rao said that though his pupil has the makings of a good archer, she was not very strong physically.

“I had put her into extra physical sessions and also arranged for a stamina-increasing tonic. Sneha’s posture is good and her grip on the bow has also improved,” he informed.

The chief coach said he has asked Sneha’s parents about the need for a nutritious diet for her.

“I know Sneha hails from a poor family but a nutritious diet is needed to stay afloat in archery. Sneha will start getting a solid diet, including fish, chicken and milk once she resumes training when the academy re-opens,” Rao added.

According to him, the cradle will re-open once the coronavirus-related situation improves.