After struggles, sacrifices and success, Indian shooters eye Olympic glory

Tokyo: Entering the Tokyo Olympics on the back of an unprecedented run that began sometime after the inexplicable meltdown in the Rio de Janeiro Games, Indian shooters bagging a medal or two, or, even three to four, is a tangible reality.

All of the 15 shooters are capable of winning medals, but few are seen as sure shot to secure podium finishes in the events that start on Saturday.

One among them is the highly-skilled Saurabh Chaudhary, who will have a few Olympic and world champions standing in his way to glory at sport's biggest showpiece.

Alongside Abhishek Verma, Chaudhary will be part of the first competition day action in the men's 10m air pistol event.

But before that, the fate of Apurvi Chandela and Elavenil Valarivan -- in the women's 10m air rifle event -- will be decided. A good outing for either of them means India will have won their first medal in these Games.

Both Chandela and Elavenil will enter the competition with plenty to look forward to, despite the occasional blips here and there.

Three-time ISSF World Cup gold medallist Chandela has endured a bit of rough time in the run up to the Games, having contracted COVID-19 and then testing negative just in time to board the flight for the Indian team's training-cum-competition tour of Croatia.

It will be her second Olympics and she will look to exorcise the hurt she felt after a foot injury pegged her back in Rio five years ago.

The 21-year-old Elavenil, world number 1 and considered one of the country's finest rifle shooters after some fine performances since breaking into the senior team, will certainly fancy her chances too.

What could aid her all the more is that she has been trained by Olympics medallist Gagan Narang for the past seven years, including throughout the stay in Zagreb.

As far as the taciturn Chaudhary is concerned, the National Rifle Association of India restraining the Olympic-bound shooters from interacting with the media in the run-up to the Games, was irrelevant.

Chaudhary prefers to live in a world of his own, likes to keep interaction with those trying to know him, to bare minimum, and mostly responds in monosyllables.

While most of his colleagues in the Indian shooting Olympic team talk and also let their guns, pistols and shotguns do the talking, the 19-year-old Chaudhary only does the latter.

Chaudhary has done it end number of times in what has so far been an incredibly successful six-year shooting career, due to which he has entered Tokyo as one of the hot favourites to win a medal.

Whether one gives him the favourites tag or not, it hardly matters to the boy who would once shoot for fun in his village fares while chewing gums, having been introduced to the sport on a visit to a neighbouring village.

Ahead of the world's biggest sporting event, Chaudhary remains composed and detached, focussing instead on trying to keep things simple and sticking to the basics to hit the bull's eye in his maiden Olympics.