ASIAN GAMES: SHARDUL VIHAN, 15, BAGS SILVER MEDAL IN DOUBLE TRAP
SILVER LINING 15yearold double trap shooter wins 8th medal from the range
PALEMBANG: Where is all this precocious talent coming from, one was forced to think after Shardul Vihan became another 15-year old to clinch a medal -- silver in double trap shooting — in the Asian Games at the Jakabaring Complex ranges on Thursday.
On Tuesday, 15-year old Saurabh Chaudhary had won gold in the 10m air pistol event.
As the sun scalded the skin and parched the lips, spectators had the luxury of going back to the comfort of the air-conditioned confines, but not the 15-year-old Shardul, who seemed to be radiating such positivity that the excruciating conditions did not have an effect on him, until he had emerged with the eighth medal for the country in shooting.
The youngest shooter from India to win a medal at the Asian Games had everything going for him from the start. In fact he led with 141 points after five rounds
of qualification and was two points ahead of Qatar’s Hamad Ali Al Marri, almost thrice his age.
In the final --and starting with a clean slate --- Shardul looked set to win India’s third gold in shooting but the Korean shooter Shin Hyun-woo missed one target less than the Indian to emerge champion by just one point at 74-73.
During the victory ceremony, Sh ar du l stood sheepishly, unable to come to terms with the magnitude of his achievement even as gold-medallist, Shin Hyun-woo, let out a roar.
Ceremony over, someone joked, “Now that you’ve won a senior medal, you should have your first shave.” To, which the Meerut boy simply gave a nervous smile before it was time to go to the dope control centre.
The journey to silver has not been easy --- neither for Shardul, nor for his family. For three years now, his uncle has been ferrying the champion shooter from Meerut to the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Ranges in Tughlakabad, as the 15-year-old still has three years to get a driving licence. “My chacha ji (uncle) Manoj Vihan drives me to the ranges, a good 2-1/2 hours from Meerut. He stays there all day long and brings me back home around 9:00 pm.”
Manoj didn’t want to miss the “historic feat”, so he flew along with Shardul’s personal coach Anwer Sultan for the finals.
“This is the moment I’d trained him for,” said Sultan. “I remember the day his father brought him to me. He was a few inches shorter than me and now stands at least 3-4 inches taller than me”
On what was he doing the night before the biggest competition of his life, Vihan said, “I was playing PUBG (a video game).” Though Shardul emerged second best, there are plenty of years ahead of him to turn that silver into gold. Maybe that occasion will come in a week’s time, when he competes at the World Championships in South Korea.
SHIFT TO TRAP
With double trap now no longer part of the Olympic curriculum, what would be Shardul’s next step? The baby-faced lad said, “I’ll shift to trap shooting after the worlds. I’ll be very disappointed leaving double trap, but if I have to win an Olympic gold, I need to become a trap shooter.”
That training too would be under Sultan, himself a master of trap shooting, having won three national titles and competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympic. Moulding Shardul into a trap shooter won’t be difficult. He started off playing cricket, moved to badminton, and now double trap.