(Avijit Ghosh is an associate editor with The Times of India. The article was first published in the print edition of Times of India on July 23, 2021)
- There has been a marked upgrade in recent years, especially in certain sports. Shooter Rajyavardhan Rathore’s silver strike in Athens (2004) set the ball rolling. “Rathore changed me. His silver ensured that gold became my possibility,”Abhinav Bindra, who claimed India’s first individual gold, in Beijing (2008), once said. The effect on the sport was tectonic. Now with improved infrastructure, quality coaches, better facilities and a surfeit of talent, India is a powerhouse in shooting. Time magazine recently named teenage top gun Saurabh Chaudhary as one of 48 elite sports persons to watch out for. Chaudhary, whose monk-like calm comes from learning his craft in an overheated tin shed in west Uttar Pradesh, has got the mettle and the minerals. But unlike the distant past, Indian shooters now hunt in packs …
