Walking in bright sunshine, and watching the ruins of the historic Hampi, elite Indian shooters had a look at Indian history, during their High Performance training camp at the Inspire Institute of Sports set up by Jindal Steel Works (JSW).
“I had always wanted to come to Hampi. This was a good chance, and we had a great time. All my family members had visited it earlier,” said Asian Games gold medallist Rahi Sarnobat, who reads four books at a time, and has a good sense of history.
It was a four-day camp for those who had won the Olympic quota, and 11 of them benefited from listening to various experts that the JSW arranged during the stint, including an interactive media session.
While Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan had to leave for home on Saturday morning, the other shooters along with coaches Suma Shirur and Ved Prakash Pilaniya, visited temples and other marvels of the Krishnadevaraya period.
“We don’t have a range here. We only had physical conditioning. It is a very good facility. For me, it was an off period and it suited nicely to be here and visit the places with the team,” said World Championship silver medallist Anjum Moudgil.
“I had been practising a few things, and it was a confirmation of my methods, while listening to the experts here,” said Rahi, confident about the way she has preparing for the Tokyo Olympics for the last few years, even before she won the Olympic quota.
“I have the experience of being there, and not being there!,” said Rahi, who had competed in the London Olympics but had missed the Rio Games.
Apurvi Chandela who had a memorable 2019, winning two World Cup gold medals, with world record to boot, was thrilled to find a little monkey giving her leg a hug, after she had treated it with a banana, at the Virupaksha Temple in Hampi.
“It was a cute sight”, said Manisha Malhotra, who has been working with the athletes for the JSW and had arranged the camp and the tour.
For young shooters like Manu Bhaker, Yashaswini Deswal, Chinki Yadav, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Abhishek Verma and Deepak Kumar, it was a memorable experience. Ashwary Pratap Singh Tomar had opted to stay back at the institute.
Four shooters who had won the Olympic quota — Saurabh Chaudhary, Sanjeev Rajput, Tejaswini Sawant and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa — were unable to join the camp, owing to various reasons.
“Empowering the athletes with knowledge and the right technological support is our focus,” said Manisha who was the administrator of the Mittal Champions Trust when its ace athlete Abhinav Bindra won gold in the Beijing Games in 2008.
Education and entertainment went hand-in-hand for the ace shooters, who have so much expectations riding on them for the Tokyo Olympics. Now, it was the time to soak some history and digest some key points to sustain their high standard.
