Rahi finds her way

Vinayak Padmadeo

Jakarta, August 22 

Rahi Sarnobat concedes that like many of her teammates at Palembang’s JSC Shooting Range, she was full of nerves while going into the last two series of the 25m pistol final.

The nerve-wracking final was decided after a rare double shoot-off after both Rahi and Thailand’s Naphaswan Yangpaiboon ended up on 34 hits. The deadlock continued in the first shoot-off when the duo scored four hits. Rahi took the gold after scoring 3 hits to Yangpaiboon’s two in the second shoot-off.

In the process, she etched her name into the history books by becoming the first woman shooter from India to win a gold in the Asian Games. This was also her first medal after four years. Incidentally, her last medal was at the Incheon Games, where she had won bronze.

“Honestly, I didn’t have the time to think and analyse the ups and downs in the final... I was just shooting. But yes, the last two-three series during the shoot-off, I was thinking that whatever happens, fight till the last shot as anything was possible,” she told The Tribune from Palembang.

This win has come on the back of some tough times for the 27-year-old girl from Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Form and fitness forced her out of the team and out of the spotlight. She suffered a radial head fracture in her right elbow in the later part of 2014. With 2015 being an important year to qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games, she carried the injury with the help of injections in the hope of making the cut for Rio. When she failed in her bid, Rahi took time out of sport and started her comeback in 2017.

Time-out

“When I didn’t get selected, I took a break of one full year. I started to make a comeback only in 2017,” she said. “People think it is a big loss if an athlete goes off the radar for one or two years. But it is not like that. Look at me. I may not be in the spotlight or seen in the newspapers in that time, but I was working on my shooting while trying to get fit.”

On her comeback, Rahi first spent time training under Ronak Pandit and then employed the services of Mongolia’s Munkhbayar Dorjsuren, who has won Olympic medals for both Mongolia and Germany. “This is a very important competition in our big journey for the Olympics. This will give me the confidence that we are on the right path,” she said of her partnership with Dorjsuren.

‘Not about me’

The new Asian champion gave credit to other pistol shooters who have made the sport strong in the country. “I was told by many that I was the first from our country to win gold,” she said. “It is not about only Rahi, before me there were several women shooters who got us laurels. I am just carrying forward their legacy.”

Manu crumbles

Manu Bhaker, meanwhile, failed to cope with the pressure and finished sixth in the finals. The 16-year-old shot a remarkable 593 to equal the Games qualification record, but could not repeat the performance in the final. 

Another German hand produces champ 

It was a German, the legendary Gaby Buhlmann, at the helm when Abhinav Bindra became India's first Olympics gold medallist in 2008. Ten years later, another German hand, Munkhbayar Dorjsuren, played a pivotal role as Rahi Sarnobat became the first Indian woman shooter to win the gold at the Asiad. Rahi fell just short of saying that today's performance would not have been possible if it was not for Dorsjuren. Dorsjuren is originally a Mongolian who moved to Germany and claimed an Olympics bronze for the country in 2008, the same year Bindra scripted history for Indian shooting. “It is like a mother-daughter relationship. Her daughter is nearly my age. We have been together for almost a year,” said Rahi, who rushed to hug Dorsjuren after winning a tense shoot-out in the final. The coach kissed her in return. — PTI