Shooting Olympic trials: Anish Bhanwala’s perfect 5/5 proves shooter on right path ahead of Paris 2024

With qualifying scores of 578 followed by 582 and 587 in the three trials conducted so far and wins in the first and second finals sandwiching a second place finish in the second final, Anish is nearly perfectly placed to cement a place in the Olympic team.

Anish Bhanwala celebrates after won the 25m rapid fire pistol in men event during the Olympic selection trails three at the MP shooting academy in Bhopal. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR / The Hindu

Competing in the final of the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event in the third Olympic selection trials conducted by the NRAI, Anish Bhanwala shot a perfect five out of five on five separate occasions of the eight series he shot in total.

The 21-year-old from Karnal finished with a total of 36/40. It was a personal best and five shots clear of Vijayveer Sidhu who came in second place.

It was a performance that got Anish’s coach Harpreet Singh to break down in tears at the conclusion of the competition. “Sometimes when everything goes perfectly...when you can do in competition what you do in training day after day, it’s a special moment,” he says.

It wasn’t any of his perfect series that got Harpreet, a former CWG champion and silver medallist in the rapid fire event, the most excited though. It was Anish’s second last series in which he scored four out of five that has Harpreet’s eyes light up.

While his third fired shot landed just outside the 9.7 ring that would have counted as a successful hit, Harpreet says the series was technically perfect.

It was a performance that got Anish’s coach Harpreet Singh to break down in tears at the conclusion of the competition.  | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR / The Hindu

“Shooting isn’t a spectator-friendly sport. The average viewer just looks at the score. The man who is in the centre of the arena firing is putting all his effort and if the score shows 4/5, the spectator thinks it is a bad miss. But someone like me sees how the shooter is shooting and gets excited,” says Harpreet who first began coaching Anish when the latter was a 16 year old.

In the final of the men’s rapid fire pistol event, once the light that tells them their time has begun switches on, shooters have to take their five shots inside four seconds.

“Most shooters make the mistake when they think they don’t have enough time and raise their gun too fast to take that first shot. Because of that, they have no stability when they shoot. On the other hand if a shooter raises his pistol too slowly, he might not have enough time to aim at each target accurately,” says Harpreet.

Anish’s penultimate series was out of the textbook in terms of timing. “It takes exactly 1.5 seconds to raise your gun and hit that target. That is perfect. Any longer and you struggle for time to complete the rest. Anish took exactly that amount of time. He took his final shot at exactly the 4 ^th second. He couldn’t have paced himself any better. He had a smooth lift and he fired at exactly the right time. It was as stable as he could have shot,” says Harpreet about Bhanwala, who also practises under three-time Olympic champion Ralf Schumann. 

“A shooter can’t think about the time. He can only think about his rhythm and technique. The fact that he timed his series so perfectly is a sign that his technique was nearly perfect,” says Harpreet.

It’s a series that gives Harpreet the confidence that Anish, who won an Olympic quota at last years Asian Championships, is on the right track.

“ He could have shot 40 out of 40 in the final but there could have been issues. But Anish was near-perfect today. And his second-last series was perfect with respect to his technique. I still can’t believe how he missed that. But even if he somehow shot a zero out of five, I would have been very happy,” says Harpreet.

Anish won an Olympic quota at last year’s Asian Championships. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR / The Hindu

It’s technique that has served Anish brilliantly at the selection trials. With qualifying scores of 578 followed by 582 and 587 in the three trials conducted so far and wins in the first and second finals sandwiching a second place finish in the second final, Anish is nearly perfectly placed to cement a place in the Olympic team for Paris 2024.

While there’s work to be done, Harpreet is confident Anish will peak when it matters most. “It is a never ending process to correct technique. But he is right on track. The final touch will be given in the practise sessions and hopefully we will see the result at the Olympics,” he says.