How often do we come up against friends who have the same passions and more importantly the same dream as us? Not too often. It becomes even harder to spot those friends in an individual sport – where success and failure are solely dependent on you but you keep egging on the other nonetheless.
Sandhya Winfred, 18, and Aadesh Chetty, 20, live in such a world – where apart from shooting which both are passionate about, they also share the same dream – participating in the Olympic Games.
Sandhya and Aadesh are pursuing their Bachelor of Visual Communication from MOP Vaishnav College and New College respectively, however, the latter is senior by two years.
The duo shot to fame when they bagged bronze medals for India in the sixth Asian Junior Shooting Championships held in Tehran late October. Sandhya claimed bronze in prone and three-position category while Aadesh secured it in three positions – all team events. The Asian medallists share another common factor. Both are part of the Chennai Rifle Club and started practising at the Club, located in the old police commissioner’s office in Egmore.
Sandhya, who was introduced to shooting by her mom when she was an 11-year-old recollects: “I started with air pistol and in three months I won a medal at the state meet. When I was in eighth standard I started with open sight and after that I shifted to peep sight because there was no scope for open sight in nationals. I left air totally and 3P is my main event now.”
Both youngsters have trained under the watchful eyes of A Lalitha and TK Varalakshmi (former national champions) and Aadesh credits his father for taking to the sport.
“My dad is helping me out with everything like licence, ammunition and other things so I can just concentrate on what I’m doing. Apart from him, the club has been very supportive and they allow us to train even during off days so it helps us in our preparation. Now that we are participating in more international events we would like to have better equipment and hopefully by next year that will happen,” Aadesh adds.
Speaking about the Tehran event, the duo acknowledges that wind was a big challenge as the conditions were alien to them. “It was a different environment. We had a range that was totally new to us. There was lot of wind,”Aadesh says and Sandhya interrupts to add: “Normally we are taught to look at the flag and shoot. But it was a huge barrier because I’m still learning how to shoot in the wind. The pressure got to me and I completely forgot to see the flag and was shooting all over the place before the coach (Deepali Deshpande, junior national team coach) thankfully came to my rescue.”
With the national shooting championships set to begin in New Delhi from December 11, the duo have already set their target. “I’ve never won an individual medal and want to improve my personal best. So that is what I’m looking to do in the nationals,” Sandhya explains.
For Aadesh it will be the last time he will be taking part in a junior national event, “I want to win an individual medal as well and improve my scoring.
“I will be participating in the senior category next year and the competition is definitely going to be immense. So what ever positives I take it from here would help my confidence,” adds Aadesh, who also undergoes pilot training.
Sandhya reckons that with better facilities and coaching they can go all the way. “When we went to the Czech Republic and Germany for the tournaments we found that the other competitors had very good equipment and really good coaches. Even the Chinese had good coaches. We have a lot of international events coming up next year as well as the World Cup. If we get a good coach it can be really helpful.
“Here at the club we don’t have a coach. But, when I was part of the Indian team, a coach was ever-present. I can already see the changes she has brought in me. Whenever I make a mistake she is there to analyse what I’m doing wrong. It’s easy to learn from Deepali. But when she is not around it’s all just a trial and error method,” Sandhya chuckles.
Aadesh though points at one more area where the sport is lagging behind. “Shooting is a very expensive sport. A lot of us don’t have sponsors. It’s very difficult to travel and buying equipment and ammunition really costs a lot. Even over here at the club although we get subsidised ammunition we can only use up to 50 cartridges per training.
“As of now there is a shortage of ammunition at the club so it’s very difficult to keep it going forward,” Aadesh signs off, as the duo puts on their jackets for another round of practice.
In addition to them, the club is also witnessing lot of youngsters taking up the sport and though their development is still in the early stages, the likes of Sumith Sangavee, Ashwin Kumar and Mahalakshmi Winfred – all former national national medallists are stil going strong in the air pistol category. In the rifle category V Mathangi, Sakthi Shivaraj, Anamalai P and Manjula have been bringing laurels to the club in national events.