By Ajai Masand
New Delhi, July 9 (IANS): Two 19-year-old pistol shooters -- Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker - have achieved enough fame in such a short span many top athletes spend a life-time achieving it.
While 10m air pistol marksman Chaudhary, who hails from a small village in Meerut, has a mind-boggling eight world cup gold medals, in individual and mixed team events, to add to the prized 2018 Asian Games gold in Jakarta, Manu has nine.
The two will be the flag-bearers of India's hopes in the pistol category, dominated by the mighty Chinese, Japanese and the South Koreans.
The duo, which is currently training in Croatia with their compatriots for the quadrennial Games could win more than two individual medals, as they have emerged as a force on the world stage in the mixed team discipline, which will make its debut in Tokyo.
Chaudhary's coach, Amit Sheoran, who runs a small shooting range in Benoli village of Baghpat district, recalls his ward's dedication to the sport and how he used to train under a tin shed in 45 degrees C for hours on end to perfect his skills.
"He used to cycle from Kalina village in Meerut to my range in Benoli - a distance of 12 km - and used to be there before 7:00 am. While everyone else used to pack up by 10:30am, Chaudhary would continue his training under scorching sun till 1:pm. And despite my repeated warnings that he risked heat stroke, he kept aiming at the target with single-minded determination," Sheoran, who has been coaching Chaudhary since the age of 14, told IANS.
"Chaudhary has a passion I've not seen in any youth I've trained all these years and I want him to win gold in Tokyo. That way, the world will also give me some recognition," added Sheoran.
Manu, from being a natural athlete where she tried every port including a Manipuri martial art, boxing tennis and skating but finally settled on shooting, has met with tremendous success but her only lean patch came during the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.
After scoring a 593 in qualification in 25m sports pistol, she finished sixth even as compatriot Rahi Sarnobat clinched gold. Manu has overcome the Asian Games disappointment and the results in 2019 and 2021, especially in mixed team with Chaudhary, indicate she is in peak form to excel in Tokyo.