In quest for gold, women look good
HIGH HOPES Indian women have never won a gold at the Asian Games but this time around, they look more formidable than their male counterparts
It’s a hurdle that has never been crossed by Indian women shooters. While the men have won seven gold at the Asian Games, starting with Randhir Singh in 1978, the women haven’t yet opened their account at the continental games.
That could change in Palembang, the venue for Asian Games shooting events, where a young and motivated bunch is all set to take on the might of the Chinese. Not that India hasn’t produced talented women shooters in the last three decades, but the absence of scientific training, stifling restrictions on arms and ammunition imports and customs red tape always came in the way of their success.
The likes of Anjali Bhagwat, Suma Shirur, Kuheli Gangulee among others, surmounted all these odds to excel on the world stage with Anjali being the first Indian woman shooter to top the international rankings and clinch gold at the World Cup Finals in 2003 at Milan with a smashing performance that fetched her 399 points out of a possible 400.
But then the Asian Games and the Olympics were always sterner tests. However, the resounding success of Manu Bhaker, the 16-year-old from Jhajjar district in Haryana, at the World Cups (junior and senior) and Commonwealth Games this year has firmly turned the spotlight on women’s shooting.
It’s the first time that women are favourites for top podium finishes. Bhaker’s success at the World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico, is the kind of stuff dreams are made of. In only her maiden World Cup she shot down two gold medals — individual and mixed team — becoming the youngest Indian to win gold at the World Cup.
The success story continued at Gold
Coast where Bhaker shattered the Games record and in the process eclipsed senior pro Heena Sidhu on way to air pistol gold. Success and failure does strange things to people and the emergence of Bhaker, who has dabbled in more than half-a-dozen sport including boxing, tennis, skating and a Manipuri martial art, did create some controversy. The National Rifle Association of India chose the Jhajjar girl over seasoned Sidhu in the mixed team event. But Asian Games and controversy go hand in hand, and this would be just a footnote in the long list of unsavoury incidents that prelude the Asian Games. However, it has added a whole new dimension to women’s shooting and could well turn the fortunes for India. Willy-nilly, the national shooting federation has fanned the desire of the two top athletes to give their best.
Not since the days of Abhinav BindraGagan Narang has Indian shooting seen such rivalry within the team. Though both Bindra and Narang continued to deny it, the game of one-upmanship was on display at numerous shooting ranges around the world and was never lost on the discerning. It will also be a fight for supremacy between someone who achieved the world No 1 ranking five years ago and a promising athlete who is setting new benchmarks.
Some argue that Bhaker’s World Cup success in Guadalajara was more on account of fewer top shooters competing, as the 2020 Olympics quota season only starts with the World Championships after the Asian Games, where the cream of world shooting will congregate. But the way she decimated two-time World Cup Finals champion Alejandra Zavala on the Mexican’s home turf gives an indication that Bhaker is made of sterner stuff.
When a junior shooter equals the world record, that too during national trials, one has to acknowledge her talent wholeheartedly. Ahmedabad’s air rifle shooter Elavenil Valarivan, 18, equalled the world record last year during trials and then shattered the junior world record on way to gold at the Junior World Cup in Sydney earlier this year, hinting at a possible dark horse who might come along and smash the Chinese dominance.