Apurvi Chandela has a master's degree in psychology. Soft-spoken, calm and restrained by nature, her shooting today was a reflection of her true self. Consider this: It was the final of the 10m air rifle competition in the ISSF Shooting World Cup in New Delhi. Chandela was in the seventh position after her first series of five shots. She then jumped to the fourth position after 10 and the second position in the 12th shot. In fact, after hitting a 10.8 in her 12th shot, she never looked back. Her remaining eight shots were all 10.5 and above. It was nerveless shooting on display.
In this final, there were three Chinese shooters in the fray, including Ruozhu Zhao, who had broken the world record in the qualifying stages. The Jaipur girl, who won the gold medal in 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and bronze in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, not only won the gold medal beating the two Chinese shooters in the fray, but also broke the world record of 252.9 in the finals of a World Cup.
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After two days of uncertainty and controversy over the World Cup being stripped of its Olympic qualification status, Chandela brought cheer to the home crowd with her record-making feat.
India has already won the two Olympic quotas available in the particular event through Chandela and teammate Anjum Moudgil, who came fourth and second respectively in the ISSF World Championships last September. This was more about putting into practice all the work done since then, in the run-up to Tokyo 2020.
Watched by her mother and relatives, Chandela’s response to loud cheers from the crowd on winning the gold at the Dr Karni Singh range was simply a smile and raising her rifle to acknowledge the spectators. Even at the press meet after the win, her pragmatism was on display. Was winning the gold on her mind, having already secured the quota for India? “Even when I got the [Olympic] quota [in 2018], my aim was not to get it but to follow my technique... putting my training into use. The same goes today, keeping my calm.” She said she was “glad that she could get the right result today, but there's lot more work to do... to better this performance.”
Rating this as her second-best performance in the finals, she said her aim has been to improve her finish in the finals and that is what she has been working on in the past few months. “It's just pressure-handling, basically. I am happy I could do it better (today). It wasn't that I was coming eighth, third or fourth. But just to get better, I had to push myself.”
Chandela went to Europe to compete in open competitions there and said that helped her a lot. “Since last month, [I have been] working really hard on the finals and my qualification. Happy that I could get the result today. In January, I had gone for open competitions and gained confidence from there. That helps me in handling pressure.”
There is intense competition in the women’s air rifle team, with Chandela, Moudgil, Mehuli Ghosh, Elavanil Valarivan all in fray to bag the two spots available for Tokyo. This gold medal in a World Cup and the world record will give Chandela a headstart in the team selection.
“All of them coming up is good for me. I have been able to push myself further. I have been performing consistently since last year. I look at it in a way that I am being motivated and I push myself saying I can't settle down at any score. There is no satisfaction I can take from it. I have to keep pushing. It's actually a good thing for me,” said Chandela.
