New Delhi: Anish Bhanwala may have had a bronze medal around his neck, but he made no bones about the fact that he was not satisfied with his performance, especially in the qualification round of the 25m rapid fire pistol at the Asian Championships here.
On any other day, or against a stronger field, the score of 574-20x would not have carried Anish to the final. Anish was seventh in the qualification, followed by Adarsh Singh in eighth place — the two spots that are new additions to the rapid fire final. The world championships silver medallist knows the high standards he is expected to deliver every time he takes the range.
“I want to start with the qualification first,” said Anish, visibly annoyed with himself. “I underperformed a lot in the qualifier. But due to less competition, I came into the finals. Even in the final, I was struggling a bit but I fought hard and managed to give my best in that situation. I managed to shoot some good series but again, a couple of bad shots due to which I wasn’t getting five hits. In the series when medals were at stake, what was expected from me and what I should do wasn’t as good. I am sad about it.”
An honest admission that speaks of a champion mindset. He was still in his zone, talking to himself, not afraid of revealing his mind to the world. There were no excuses from his side to be thrown.
Having taken out the frustration that must have been gradually building on him from the qualifiers to the final, Anish was more at ease. “But I have respect for the medal and that I was able to make it on the podium. When you have a series like I had in the qualification, it’s not great by your own standard, even though you are in the final, so I’m not so happy with myself.”
Towards the final stretch of elimination, when he was closing in on Japan’s Dai Yoshioka at the top and was even level with him in the 5th series, Anish had three poor series of 2, 3 and 2 (a total of just 7 hits out of 15), which pulled him down to third. Kazakhstan’s Nikita Chiryukin, who topped the qualification (582-17x), climbed up to grab the silver (28 hits) while Yoshioka had his nerves under control with two perfect series of five hits, taking the gold with a score of 31.
It is precisely such fighting moments that help an athlete learn. Anish did not waste any time seeking his coach Harpreet Singh at the range. This is the year of the Asian Games and World Championships, and Anish will be expected to fire big.
“I know the world standards. And of course, that is the goal and that is what we prepare for in training. But I will discuss it with the coach. We have already had some discussions. But again, we tried our best in the training sessions. It takes some time for results to come.”
