Angad shows world class with Asian gold

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 6

Angad Vir Singh Bajwa is still cross with the referees. He claims he was robbed of a target hit by the referees, otherwise he would have finished his first round in qualifications with a perfect score of 25. “They deemed it to be a miss but I broke the target!” Bajwa said.

He had just shot a world record of 60/60 in the final to win the gold medal in skeet at the ongoing Asian Shotgun Championships in Kuwait City. He qualified for the final by breaking 121 clay targets.

To put things into perspective, Vincent Hancock, two-time Olympics gold medallist and the reigning world champion, hasn’t hit 60 in a final, but he has fallen short thrice by a single target.

And yet Bajwa was complaining about a disputed call by the referees. His father, Gurpal Singh Bajwa, said he is ‘always glued to the gun’.

“I have told him many times to relax a bit and socialise but he is obsessed and he can’t help but talk about skeet or what he needs to do to get better in the sport,” Gurpal said, talking to The Tribune from Toronto. 

“It is only about his gun or his stock, he brings it up in most conversations. But he is a young, hardworking boy and we have been expecting him to win for some time now. I know he is set for big things and today’s gold is only the start,” he added.

The 23-year-old from Chandigarh agreed. “Yes, my dad sometimes calls me crazy,” Bajwa said minutes after collecting his maiden gold medal in the senior category on Tuesday. “But I only try to do my best. And I am happy that I won with a world record score today.” 

It was no mean feat for Bajwa as senior shooters such as China’s Jin Di, Kuwait’s Saud Habib and Abdullah Al Rashidi, and UAE’s Saeed Al Maktoum — all multiple winners — were part of the final competition.

Different route

Bajwa has also chartered a different course than his India teammates in the skeet team. The majority have been training with the legendary Ennio Falco, the foreign coach with the team. Falco has been credited with the upswing in results and scores in the skeet discipline ever since he took over.

Bajwa has had training stints with Hancok and Tore Brovold, the Norwegian who won silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, in the last three years. “The results and scores in skeet have undoubtedly improved since he (Falco) took over. But ours is not a team sport like cricket; this is an individual sport. We need to think what suits our game and I decided to seek a different path than others,” Bajwa said.

Elavenil-Hriday break world record for gold

Kuwait City: India's 10m rifle mixed team of Elavenil Valarivan and Hriday Hazarika struck gold at the Asian Championship with a junior world record score in the final here today. Mehuli Ghosh and Arjun Babuta won the bronze medal in the same event. Elavenil and Hriday qualified for the five-team final in third position with a combined score of 835.8. Mehuli and Arjun logged 833.5 to qualify in fourth place. In the 45-shot final, Elavenil and Hriday made a strong start and led from the start. They were briefly second after 20 shots, behind the Chinese pair of Shi Mengyao and Wang Yuefeng. The Indians eventually finished with a score of 502.1, which is a world junior record. The Chinese pair finished second with 500.9. Mehuli and Arjun were third throughout the final and ended with a score of 436.9. The juniors had begun their campaign on Monday with three silver medals and one bronze medal, with Elavenil winning bronze in the individual women's air rifle junior competition and silver in the team format. Mehuli and Arjun had also won silver in the mixed team competition. — PTI