Gurgaon: Abhishek
Verma (29) has brought laurels to the city and country by winning a bronze medal in the men’s 10m air pistol shooting event at the 2018 Asian Games, which is currently being held in Jakarta,
Indonesia.
Speaking to TOI over the phone from Jakarta,
Abhishek said he had always been interested in shooting. “When I was a kid, the climax scenes in Bollywood movies, in which the characters fought with guns, interested me a lot. I was inspired to take up this sport after Abhinav Bindra won gold in the Beijing Olympics,” he said.
His father, Ashok Kumar Verma, is a district and sessions court judge, while his mother is a homemaker. Abhishek decided to become a shooter three years ago. “After completing BTech and LLB from Kurukshetra University, I told my parents I wanted to take up shooting. My parents have always supported me, from buying a gun costing Rs 1.8 lakh to taking care of all my training expenses,” the shooter said.
A proud Ashok said, “No one in our family has ever participated in any sport. It’s out of curiosity in shooting that he started playing this sport.”
A few years later, Ashok was transferred to Palwal. “I used to travel in a bus for two hours to reach my academy in Fatehabad. A friend of mine then told me about a shooting academy in Bhondsi, run by Ominder Singh, which was nearer. I have been training in Bhondsi for the past one year and stay at the academy’s PG. Ominder, my coach, has always motivated me to go the extra mile,” Abhishek shared.
“When I first saw him, I knew there was something special about this boy. His hand and eye coordination was immaculate. He was determined and wanted to do something for himself,” Ominder said. Abhishek will next be taking part in the World Shooting Championship in Changwon, South Korea, between August 31 and September 15. “The South Korea event is crucial for me. If I do well, I’ll get a ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” he said.
