The packed arena at the J-Max theatre reverberated with thunderous applause as the shooters preparing for the Tokyo Olympics were felicitated by the JSW family.
In an interactive session, parents and children posed a variety of questions to the shooters after a five-day training stint at the Inspire Institute of Sports here.
Asian Games silver medallist Deepak Kumar stole everyone’s hearts. “It is an individual journey. Always remember ‘the more you push me down, the stronger I will come up’,” said Deepak, when a young judoka asked how she should deal with a non-supportive family and demotivating remarks.
“My father doesn’t know about shooting. But I have worked hard to make sure that he is known by my identity. I worked hard to reach this far,” said Deepak.
A retired armyman admired the accuracy of the shooters and wondered how they were able to achieve such perfect ‘grouping’ on the target, when he struggled to do so all his life.
National pistol coach Ved Prakash Pilaniya assuaged his hurt saying the weapon and ammunition used for competition were of much superior quality, and the ones used in the army were meant for a different purpose and thus lacked matching accuracy.
Rahi Sarnobat thanked the “boys in the team”. “There is no difference between boys and girls. We are one team. There is no difference in weapon specifications and ammunition. Special thanks to the boys,” said Rahi, when queried about the possible difficulties of being a sportswoman, and training with men. On handling pressure, Abhishek Verma, who won two World Cup air pistol golds last year, said confidence and responsibility came together.
When asked how much time was devoted for preparation, World championship silver medallist Anjum Moudgil said, “24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
Divyansh Singh Panwar said: “I have been shooting from the age of 12. With good coaching and good support, I have been able to attain high standards.”