CHENNAI: Skeet shooter Anantjeet Singh Naruka was locked on to the task at hand, gunning down clay pigeons at will in the late afternoon at the Shooting Plaza in Shymkent on Wednesday.
With the gold in sight, the 27-year-old was a picture of determination as he inched closer and closer to his goal at the ongoing Asian Championships in Kazakhstan. There were some blips for the Indian with veteran Mansour Al-rashidi of Kuwait, his closest challenger, testing his will. Anantjeet had faced a somewhat similar challenge in the last edition and had narrowly missed out on the yellow metal. Despite Al-rashidi's pressure, the Jaipur shooter remained ice cool and flipped the script this time around to earn himself a gold medal, India's first in the senior category in the ongoing continental meet.
Anantjeet was spot on from the word go and had just three misses in the 60-shot marathon final, finishing with a tally of 56. Al-rashidi was just one behind. Qatar's Al-Ishaq Ali Ahmed AO was the third-best in the six-man final.
Foreign coach Riccardo Filippelli, who has been the force behind some of the top skeet shooters from the country, was closely following the final unfold. The Italian, a former champion shooter himself, is naturally stoked with this outcome. "The competition was very complicated because of the strong wind and terrible organization. Anantjeet had been receptive from the very beginning and did a camp in Italy before this competition," he told the The New Indian Express from Shymkent.
"I can only say that he (Anantjeet) was fantastic in everything... had great preparation and had a great attitude. His performance in the final was impeccable. I'm proud of him because in addition to being a champion, he is an extraordinary guy. This must be our starting point."
Anantjeet had returned with a tally of 119 in the qualification in the morning to qualify for the finals. Even though the skeet shooters have been playing second-fiddle to the rifle and pistol colleagues, Anantjeet's gold-medal outcome is not a massive surprise. Despite not making the finals in the World Cups earlier this year, Anantjeet has been a one of the competitive shooters from the shotgun category in the last few years or so. During the said phase, he has a World Cup final medal to his name and is also a Asian Games silver medallist.
Even though Filippelli officially took charge of the national skeet team this year, he was no stranger to the Indians. He had helped Anantjeet secure the Paris Olympics ticket last year in the last edition of the championships. His association with veteran Mairaj Ahmad Khan (not part of this event) also goes a long way back and Maheshwari Chauhan, who finished fourth in the women's category, has also taken lessons from him before he joined the team officially. Filippelli's working ethos is to inculcate strong team spirit. "In the last few years, we have grown a lot, the guys are always with me and believe in my 'team' project because not being a team, I think it is difficult for us to win. We have a lot of talent in India and I have identified a few who I think will bring us many medals in the future," he noted.
Technique aside, the coach wants his wards to embrace a winning mentality. "I believe deeply in technique but above all, (taking) the right approach and a winning mentality and only by working closely with my players, can I convey these values. Everyone must believe in our project — our federation and our Olympic committee."
Senior pro Mairaj is not part of this event but had words of encouragement for his younger counterpart. "Winning gold is not easy and the Asian Championships is important for us. This is a sure sign that things are improving. We have a new coach and a young team. Winning at this age bodes well for him."
The gold medal is certainly a good sign for Anantjeet and the rest of the shotgun unit.
Bronze for Saurabh, Suruchi
Saurabh Chaudhary and Suruchi Singh captured a bronze medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team competition. They shot a combined tally of 578 in the qualification stage before going on to beat Chinese Taipei's Liu Heng-Yu and Hsieh Hsiang-Chen 17-9 in the bronze-medal match.