Rio a mere ‘selection trial’ for Mairaj
Mairaj Ahmad Khan Kheshgi’s profile on the ISSF (shooting world body) website highlights his achievement. He has a solitary medal, silver at the Rio World Cup in April.
For the uninitiated, Mairaj’s podium that day was a headline grabber as skeet shooting in India is a neglected part of the shotgun team.
The discipline faces official apathy as authorities refused grants for overseas participation. Mairaj’s first international tournament was one such occasion. “I travelled to the Lonato World Cup because Naveen Jindal (businessman) sponsored the trip. If not for him, I wouldn’t have got the experience,” said Mairaj on the 2003 trip.
He didn’t blame the authorities for their apathy as only the rich and famous pursued skeet for recreation. Life on the range started seriously in 2001 for the 40-yearold
when thethen Indian coach Teimur Matoini asked him to take up the sport.
“I told him I didn’t have money and wouldn’t get cartridges to train as I wasn’t part of the team. But he insisted he would be able to sustain my training. He got me a grant of 100 targets and 90 cartridges to train, and I had to rent a gun from SAI (Sports Authority of India),” said Mairaj.
From then till 2013, Mairaj was a regular in the Indian team and on the podium in national championships. Thereafter, he started to stagnate. “I don’t know whether I was choking but my scores averaged between 115-117 points (out of 125),” he said.
The scores started to look up with the appointment of Italian Ennio Falco, a gold medallist at the Atlanta Olympics and with a bagful of medals in World Cups.
“Falco is a big reason for whatever good is happening in skeet in the country. From shooting 15000 cartridges a year, my count has gone up to 25000-30000 a year.
He is the best and I am thankful he is with us,” said Mairaj. The outlook has changed too. Gone is the grudge against the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) officials or SAI for all problems. “All those complaints were nothing but excuses. It is human to blame everyone but you. ‘I have no money, no sponsor’… Those things are of no help,” he explained.
Currently sweating it out at Falco’s family-owned range in Capua, Italy, Mairaj knows it is crunch time but is at peace with whatever happens in Rio.
“I have left everything for this. I am hardly home, and sometimes miss Eid with the family too. I am unmarried and have to survive on Italian food, so it is not easy. Yet, I am going to enjoy the experience.
I have been shooting for 20 years and the Olympics are a big dream, so I will enjoy it. But come competition I will treat it as if I am shooting a selection trial in Patiala,” he said.
Falco is a big reason for whatever good is happening in skeet in the country. From shooting 15000 cartridges a year, my count has gone up to 25000-30000 a year. MAIRAJ AHMAD KHAN, on coach Ennio Falco