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Shooting has been India’s forte at the Olympics in the 21st century. It is a sport in which the Indians have done remarkably well on the global stage over the past two decades.
It started with Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore as he won India’s first medal in the sport at the Olympic Games in 2004 as he won silver in Athens. Four years later, Abhinav Bindra bettered the colour of the medal and won India’s first, and till date, the only individual gold in the history of the Olympics.
Vijay Kumar and Gagan Narang won silver and bronze respectively in London and added to the country's medal haul.
However, the contingent fired a blank at the Rio Olympics. Post a dismal showing in Brazil, the Abhinav Bindra-led review committee made some suggestions which were adopted by the national governing body for the sport in the country, the National Rifle Association of India.
As many as 15 shooters will ply their trade in Tokyo, and amongst the favorites to win a medal at the Games are 19-year old sensations Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary.
The duo are part of multiple individual events and a mixed event at the Tokyo Olympics. In this article, we delve deeper and analyze their chances as Bhaker and Chaudhary aim for gold in Japan.
Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker’s consistent run over the past 2 years leading up to the Tokyo Olympics
Saurabh was one of the top shooters on the junior circuit but his coming of age performance was at the Asian Games in 2018 when he became the youngest Indian shooter to bag a gold medal.
The world number 2 shooter has won 8 ISSF World Cup golds and qualified for the final every time in the last couple of years. Anything less than a podium finish would be an underachievement for the Meerut-born shooter.
Manu Bhaker will be participating in a couple of individual events at the 2020 games. However, Bhaker will fancy her chances in the 10m air pistol event, more than the 25m air pistol event.
She won a couple of gold medals at the ISSF World Cup in the 10M event. The teenager bagged silver at the 2021 World Cup in New Delhi in the same event.
Post the 2018 Commonwealth Games gold, Bhaker hasn’t looked back and a medal at the Tokyo Olympics will be the culmination of all the hard work.
Other than individual events, the duo will be participating as a team in the mixed category. Since 2019, the Chaudhary-Bhaker team has won in all the World Cups they have participated in and will be the favorites at the Olympics.
Coach’s confidence in the team
India’s pistol coach Pavel Smirnov has faith in all the shooters, including Bhaker and Chaudhary ahead of the Olympics. Smirnov told PTI,
“Every one of them can finish on the podium, and I have seen a bit of Indian shooting over the years. On their day they can win medals at the highest level. Even gold.”
The national pistol coach, who has seen the rise of Bhaker and Chaudhary from junior champions to world champions, added,
“I am very hopeful with this team. They deserve to do well because they have all made sacrifices, some at a very young age, shown maturity and worked very hard over the last four years. There is no reason for us not to have a very good Olympic Games.”
Smirnov was part of the coaching staff which saw medal hopefuls like Jitu Rai fail at the Rio Olympics. The preparation of the Indian contingent, especially Bhaker and Chaudhary, has been inch-perfect so far.
But the Indian duo will be at their first Olympics. They will have to overcome the mental obstacles that have hurt some notable names like Bindra in 2004 or Rai in the recent past to increase their tally of India’s individual golds at the Olympics.
