Shooter Sunidhi aims high

 Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

new delhi, february 19

It is a normal training day for Sunidhi Chauhan, with coach Suma Shirur watching over her ward from a distance. Sunidhi looks calm and composed going through her business of finding the inner 10th of a 5mm target.

But she is anything but calm, for Sunidhi will make her big India debut at the ISSF World Cup for Rifle/Pistol that gets underway on Thursday, and this has got her thinking. She will be competing in the women’s 50m 3 Positions competition. The 21-year-old trainee from the famed Madhya Pradesh Shooting Academy (MPSA) has not represented India at any level. Her only tryst with the spotlight was when she bagged a bronze at the National Championships in the 50m 3 Positions competition in Thiruvananthapuram last year. She finished behind senior pros Anjum Moudgil and Tejaswini Sawant. The daughter of a factory worker — her father RS Chauhan works as a fitter in the iron industry in Bhopal — had dreams of becoming a pilot, not a shooter. She wanted to fly with the Air Force, so she opted for the Air Wing in NCC when studying. This would have given her a direct shot at an interview with the Services Selection Board (SSB).

But fate willed otherwise. A shooting medal during her NCC stint got her noticed by the coaches and her career path changed.

“Nobody in my family was even remotely interested in sports, and that included me. I picked up shooting during my time with the NCC, thinking this would help me when I appear before SSB to become a pilot. But shooting changed everything,” Sunidhi recalled. “Then I got a lucky break with MPSA, where I started to shoot all three disciplines in rifle shooting. In 2018, I won a bronze in 3 Positions, and here I am in the Indian team now!” she added.

The big debut

Sunidhi, a BSC graduate of Gwalior’s MLB College, affiliated with Barkatullah University, said she’s aware that not much is expected of her, and that has eased her nerves. “I don’t have any butterflies… Actually there are a few!” she said. “But since I don’t have big expectations as I am only starting, it won’t be an issue. All my coaches have told me that I won’t hit a high score all of a sudden. The scores improve gradually. So if someone is regularly scoring 1160 (during training), he or she won’t suddenly score 1180 out of the blue. It takes some time.”