Saurabh: Steadfast teen who out shot an Olympic legend
PRODIGY 15yearold outclasses Korean Olympic great Jin Jongoh to be youngest Indian medallist
PALEMBANG: India made a grand comeback in Asian Games shooting after years of being in the wilderness, clinching gold, silver and a bronze, to take their tally to six medals at the Jakabaring Complex on Tuesday. Not since the 2006 Doha Games, where the country had 14 medals — three of them gold — have they enjoyed such stupendous run.
If Lakshay Sheoran and Deepak Kumar provided the spark on Monday, it was the 15-year-old Meerut boy Saurabh Chaudhary who took the performance to a different level, reminding one of the original pistol king Jaspal Rana, who had won three gold — two individual and a team — to make the Doha Games truly memorable.
Saurabh’s gold came on a memorable day which saw compatriot Abhishek Verma bag bronze and senior mate in 50m rifle 3-position Sanjeev Rajput fighting till the very end before settling for silver.
Saurabh wasn’t overawed by the reputation of Jin Jong-oh of South Korea, who himself would have lost count of the number of Olympic, World Championship, World Cup and Asian Games medals he won in his two-decade long career.
The Meerut boy, coming from a farming background, could have only looked inwards for inspiration as his coach Amit Sheoran was not a part of the contingent. No Indian ever has won, or even come close to winning gold in the toughest shooting competition and here was Saurabh, not flinching one bit despite the enormity of the task.
“Yes, I knew he (Jin Jong-oh) was standing on firing station one and I was on two. But how does that matter when I was not willing to take any pressure. I was as normal as I always am. Had I thought that I wouldn’t be able to beat him, half the battle would have been lost then and there,” said Saurabh, bereft of emotions or excitement, as the Indian contingent around him went wild with celebrations.
In the din, Abhishek’s achievement was lost, but never for a second did the Rohtak boy complain.
Rajput realised his dream of an individual Asian Games medal in 50m rifle three-position after three unsuccessful attempts, which saw him managing two bronze and a silver in the team category.
It was sheer providence that he could not win gold despite being so near the summit, losing to China’s Hui Zicheng by just 0.6 points.
Meanwhile, Saurabh went through his routine in a cool, calculated manner, biding his time before taking his shots to ensure every single pellet earned him a good score.
He had made his intentions clear in the qualification round itself where he scored 586 to Jong-oh’s 584. Barring one poor series of 10 shots (in the third series) where the Meerut boy had a 93, he was immaculate in the other five series, shooting 99, 99, 98, 98 and 99.
Saurabh was solid in the finals too, and barring a slight setback when Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsuda pushed him to second after the Indian had two poor shots of 9.0 and 9.6, he was back on track. He momentarily fell to third after the third elimination series, when Abhishek took the second spot, but from then on he lifted his game to keep moving up, the only blemish – a 9.8 -coming in the sixth series of the elimination round.
Later during the media interaction, he opened up just a wee bit. “I’ve only trained for a few weeks at the senior national camp. There was no pressure on me. Had I entertained those thoughts, I wouldn’t have won gold,” said Saurabh, weighing each word before speaking.
Saurabh wasn’t game for some interesting conversation, but what he achieved on Tuesday was beyond a million words.