Pistol shooter Saurabh misses Cairo flight, coach confident of good response

CHENNAI: Those who followed Saurabh Chaudhary's performances since his debut in the last few years would know he had been nothing but sensational, winning medals for fun against some of the elites in the sport.
Going into the Tokyo Olympics, the pistol shooter had entered the marquee event as the country's brightest hope. But he had narrowly missed out. Then, he was the only Indian shooter to advance to a final.

How things can change so fast. Now, Saurabh finds himself in the shadows. A little over 12 months after that narrow miss, Saurabh's world has turned upside down. He's not part of the upcoming World Championships (October 12-25) in Cairo, Egypt. That's the same venue where he had captured gold during the first ISSF World Cup of 2022. But despite missing the Cairo flight, coach Samaresh Jung said that he remains positive. "He's (Saurabh) not at all discouraged. This happens. It is part of the game. He has faced setbacks in the past too," Samaresh told this newspaper.

As reported by TNIE in June, this exclusion is no surprise. Following that aforementioned gold, Saurabh struggled to find his usual calmness at the range. A modest show during the selection trials 1 and 2 followed. Things went south after he put up a disastrous show during the third and fourth trials. While some of the top performers had scores in the 580s, Saurabh had 574 during the selection trial 3. In the fourth, he shot just 569 while the top-three, just for context, had 589, 583 and 582. That meant the toppers, overall, got the chance to take part in a World Cup, thereby getting a chance to extend their lead.

It was the same story during the Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial Shooting, where Shiva Narwal, the man in form and who's set for the World Championships, dominated. Saurabh's performance during the selection trials 5 and 6 were also modest. After the completion of those two trials, Saurabh was placed a lowly-29th in the list, well outside contention to become part of the team to lead a major competition.

"It (run) just happened. But this is just the beginning of the Olympic cycle. He is unlucky to have missed out but the good thing is that there are more events next year. The Asian Games was also postponed. He has to work on the basics. He needs to be patient. Hopefully, everything will fall in line," Samaresh noted.

Saurabh has been a regular since 2018, climbing the podium on many occasions. Prior to the build-up of the Tokyo Olympics, the shooters had intense build-up. Continuous grind could have taken a toll on the mind of the 20-year-old.

Apart from Saurabh, some of the other big names who missed out on the World Championships are Apurvi Chandela (rifle), Rahi Sarnobat (pistol) and Abhishek Verma (pistol). Manu Bhaker, who competed in 10m air pistol and 25m sports pistol (individual) during the Tokyo Olympics, is only part of the latter this time.