With India’s 16-year-old Manu Bhaker in the limelight, Rahi Jeevan Sarnobat knew it well that entire focus would be around the teenager as the final round of women’s 25m pistol got under way.
And why not?
Manu already had Games record under her belt (593) in the qualifying, whereas Rahi qualified as sixth best with a score of 580. But the 27-year-old from Kolhapur had enough experience at this level — a bronze at the 2014 Incheon edition — to understand that what happened till now has no bearing on what will go on from now onwards.
After the first two rounds of shoot-offs ended in a tie, Rahi held her nerve to get three right in the third shoot-off to overcome stiff challenge from Thailand’s Naphaswan Yangpaiboon to become the first Indian female shooter to win a gold medal at the Asian Games. Her Thai opponent missed three shots to settle for the silver.
In the process, India’s best hope Manu fared poorly in the final round to settle for sixth place.
Rahi not just became the first Indian woman to win a gold in shooting in the ongoing Games but her score of 34 is a Games record.
German Connection
Rahi is a veteran of the sport and apart from winning bronze at Incheon Asiad, she had won two Commonwealth Games gold medals — 2010 Delhi and 2014 Glasgow — under her name.
But it was an elbow injury just after the Incheon that kept her out of sport for next two years. After taking a seven-month break in 2016, Rahi wanted to try something different in order to forge strong entry back into the shooting range. And that’s when former German Olympic bronze medallist Munkhbayar Dorjsuren came into the picture and both decided to train together.
Mongolian by origin, Dorsjuren moved to Germany and won medal in 2008 Beijing Games, the same year India’s Abhinav Bindra scripted history by becoming first ever individual gold medallist for his country. Rahi rushed to hug her coach after winning the tense shoot-out.
“It is like a mother-daughter relationship. Her daughter is nearly my age. We have been together for almost a year,” Rahi was heard saying it post her gold medal victory.
More than working on her technical aspects, Dorjsuren worked more on her mental aspects. He instilled that champion mindset in Rahi which was at display during the final on Wednesday despite the fact that she had not won any major medal since Glasgow CWG in 2014.
In 2016, Rahi came to know that Dorjsuren has retired after 25-year of her professional career. She wanted to hire her as personal coach but was not easy to do so with the kind of salary Indian was getting as deputy collector in Maharashtra. Even the support Rahi was getting from Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) was not enough to sustain her coaching expense.
However, Rahi somehow managed to continue with her coach by using funds that she got as cash rewards after Glasgow gold medal win. The situation may change now for Rahi after Asiad victory as she hopes to be included now in the Indian government’s Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS).
What Next?
Rahi’s quest has not ended with Asian gold. Rather, it has made her more determined to do well at the next Tokyo Olympics in 2020. “This win was so important for me to open my mind. It has taken me to the time I was winning medals,” Rahi was quoted as saying after victory in Palembang, Indonesia.
Her next aim is to secure Olympic quota place in the upcoming World Championships. And what best place to do that in Changwon (South Korea) where she won her only World Cup gold, back in 2013.
Riding high on Rahi’s achievement, Indian shooting contingent has till date won two gold medals, apart from silver by Sanjeev Rajput and Abhishek Verma’s bronze.
Did You Know?
Rahi Sarnobat’s coach is Munkhbayar Dorjsuren, a six-time Olympian from 1992 to 2012, participating in her first 3 Games for Mongolia (1992, 1996, 2000) and the next 3 for Germany (2004, 2008, 2012), winning 25m pistol bronze medal in 1992 and 2008
N Zone
10 No. of Asian Games medals (4 silver, 6 bronze) India have won in women’s shooting before Rahi Sarnobat won gold — the most medals for a nation at the Asiad in women’s shooting without ever a gold
Rs 50 lakh reward
Maharashtra, on Wednesday, announced a cash award of Rs 50 lakh for Rahi Sarnobat. “I am happy to announce that Maharashtra Government will give Rs 50 lakh to the gold medal winners, Rs 30 lakh to silver medal winners and Rs 20 lakh to bronze medal winners of AsianGames 2018 from Maharashtra,” CM Devendra Fadnavis tweeted.
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