‘My job is to shoot, jab goli nishane pe lage…” Anish Bhanwala clinches Paris Olympics shooting quota for India | Sport-others News

The Haryana shooter Anish Bhanwala didn’t go back to his home in Karnal after he finished 22nd at the Hangzhou Asian Games. Instead the 21-year-old called his coach, the Commonwealth medall Harpreet Singh, to Delhi to train him at Dr Karni Singh Shooting Ranges for two-three weeks leading into the Asian Shooting Championships. On Monday, Bhanwala secured India’s 12th Paris Olympics quota in shooting with a bronze medal in the men’s 25m Rapid Fire final in the Asian Shooting Championship in Changwon, Korea. He is now headed to the Changwon market to get a gift for his longtime coach and his father.
“Mera kaam hai goli chalana and jab goli nishane pe lage toh who choti choti Khushi hi badi Khushi ka rasta banati hai (My job is to shoot and when the bullet hits the bulls eye, those small moments of joy lay the road to bigger success for me),” says Bhanwala, whose father Jagpal Bhanwala is a agricultur in Gohana.
“Even though I won the team bronze medal along with Vijayveer Sidhu and Adarsh Singh, it was a disappointing campaign for me in the individual event. It is important to recognize your flaws and rectify them soon. So I decided to spend time with Harpreet Singh. He always says whether I come with a medal or not, I should aim for shooting in good rhythm! To return home with a medal and an Olympic quota for India is special for me and my coach,” Bhanwala tells The Indian Express.
For somebody, who first burst on the national scene winning the senior title among a field consing of 2012 London Olympics silver medall Vijay Kumar in 2017, the Karnal native showed some superlative form at the world junior level. He was the youngest gold medal winner for India in the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018. He had followed that with two junior world cup titles in 2019 but from there, the progress has been a tad slow to his liking; this year, he won his first ISSF World Cup medal, a bronze at Cairo.He acknowledges the path to accomplishments at the senior level has taken time.
“25m Rapid Fire event is a very technical event and I still cherish the multiple world titles at the junior level. They only showed me that I am growing as a shooter and I understand that the event takes years to master and to reach the maturity level of somebody like Vijay sir. I was also growing up physically all these years and sometimes some things did not work for me like grip changes or weight added to the pol. But then we would again return to basics and with time, I have started to mature mentally. My focus has been to enjoy my shooting,” he says.
On Monday, Bhanwala had the quota place for India in the bag even before the final began. He was third in qualification with a score of 588 but with a few shooters from other countries, already achieved the Paris qualification, Bhanwala’s spot was secured.
In the final, Bhanwala was in the lead along with Lee and Li after the first competition stage with a score of 12 each before he dropped to the tied-first spot with Lee and Dai with a score of 21 after the second elimination stage. A series of perfect five in this stage saw Bhanwala taking a two-shot lead over the fourth placed Li and a three point series as compared to four point Li in the third elimination stage saw Bhanwala edging out the Chinese two-time Olympic medall to fourth place and assuring himself of a medal.
The Haryana shooter was tied with Japan’s Yoshioka Dai after the fourth elimination stage and lost the shoot-off to win the bronze medal. “We knew that if any of us (Me or Vijayveer Sidhu) can get into the final, we will have a chance of the quota, When we reached the final hall, I got to know about the quota already being won India. So my focus was to shoot freely and that’s what happened for me today. The shoot off was unlucky for me but I am glad that I could edge out the three Chinese shooters including two-time Olympic medall Yuehong Li.”Most Read
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He would have a little big moment with Li after the final that he is pretty chuffed about. “He is one of the Chinese shooters whom I idolize and he complimented me after the final,” says Bhanwala.
With not more than ten months remaining for the Paris Olympics, Bhanwala first has to assure himself a spot in the Indian team for the Paris Olympics. Coach Harpreet Singh believes that the next 2-3 months will be spent on going back to the basics.
“We had made some adjustments to his grip and also made changes in his head position in which he shoots,” Says Singh. “So the aim will be to get him adjusted well to all the changes repeated practice sessions. He shoots 250-300 shots daily and is shooting close to 590 in practice. That’s the rhythm we want him to achieve regularly in the next 6-7 months.”