At age 16, you do what you want to and care little for the consequences. On Tuesday, 16-year-old Saurabh Chaudhary did what he wanted - and became the youngest Indian to win an Asian Games shooting gold.

A medal strung around his neck, Chaudhary, the son of a farmer from Meerut, looked as if he had just returned from a stroll in the park. “I didn’t think I’d win the final, but I was determined to do what I could and just focus on myself,” he said. “Before the last shot, I wasn’t thinking about winning the gold, but I knew I had the silver…I wasn’t thinking about the fact I was facing a world champion or an Olympic champion. I was just focussing on my own technique.”

After topping the qualifiers, the scores of which are wiped out before the final, Chaudhary trailed Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsuda for much of the elimination Stage II in the final, which after the first 10 shots resembles a Russian Roulette. Only winners stay alive in the contest.

One by one, the others fell, till there were three left: two Indians — Chaudhary and a lawyer-turned-shooter Abhishek Verma — and the leader, Matsuda.

With four shots to go, only three were left in the contest. Each was assured of a medal; only the colour was to be determined.

Matsuda led Chaudhary by 1.1 points, a lead so huge that it required a collapse to bridge it. Verma was only 0.5 points behind Chaudhary. And then, Verma bid goodbye with a bronze.

By then, Matsuda was under pressure; only 0.4 points separated him from Chaudhary. The Indian had ice in his veins, and it was the 42-year-old Japanese, a two-time former World Champion, who wilted. He shot an 8.9, a disaster in shooting, where the tenths of a point decide medals. Chaudhary replied with a 10.2 and the pendulum swung decisively. A 0.4-point deficit had turned into a 0.9-point lead for Chaudhary. In his final shot, Chaudhary shot a 10.4, and Matsuda 10.3. The gold and the world belonged to the youth.

The son of a farmer from Kalina, a village next to the Hindon river in Meerut, Chaudhary took to shooting three years ago. He trained at Amit Sheoran’s Academy in Binauli, near Baghpat. Ironically, it is also referred to as the Baba Shah Mal Academy, after a villager who led a large band of farmers against British forces in the mutiny of 1857.

Related Topics