The 38-year-old marksman is shaping up well for the Beijing Olympics. He is expected to improve upon his silver medal-winning performance in Athens, writes Kamesh Srinivasan.
Like Leander Paes, shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore will be looking for his second Olympic medal in Beijing. Though he has not been achieving big scores of late, the 38-year-old Indian marksman has been training hard with the best possible coaching support that he can get.
“He is too good in handling pressure,” said the double world record holder in trap, Ronjan Sodhi, who himself was unlucky not to get a wild card for the Beijing Olympics.
“When we used to talk of pressure, Rathore used to ask ‘what pressure?’ and point out that when he was part of the army tackling the enemy, missing a target possibly meant becoming one. Clay shooting is child’s play for him in comparison, and he still trains very hard,” said Ronjan.
Ronjan has a lot of respect for Rathore and he vouches that there is nobody better equipped than the Athens Games silver medallist to fight for a medal for the country.
Rathore reached Beijing well before others in order to get accustomed to the conditions there, the smog in particular. Though he has stayed away from the media glare in the run-up to the Games, Rathore has written blogs that act as a window to his world.
“The targets seem fine, not so hard as last time that we were at Bejing for the test event. They were flying pretty smooth.
“The humidity is really something here, you are dripping of sweat in a few minutes, got to watch for our hydration. I guess, I should not be complaining at all about humidity, being from Delhi. We will handle all this and more,” he writes in one of his blogs.
Rathore had shot 132 out of 150 in the World Cup in Beijing a few months ago when he had just about managed to gauge the conditions. He did shoot a 140 in the Kerrville World Cup later and has since been shaping up well.
Richard Faulds of Britain, the Sydney Olympics gold medallist, will be the hot favourite as he has been making all the finals and winning medals. He has a world record to boot. However, the compact field could be very competitive with the Chinese in particular trying to improve their position from No. 3 and No. 4 in Athens.
“The scores are high of late, but Rathore is capable of repeating what he did four years ago. That medal did a lot to shooting and Indian sports in general. He knows what he has to do and is preparing hard,” said Ronjan.
A champion delivers when it matters. Trust Rathore to land the knock-out punch and improve upon his silver medal.
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