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Hazarika beat the odds to win 10m air rifle trials
Hazarika topped the 10m air rifle trials at Karni Singh Range on Saturday, with a high score of 253.2 in the final.
Junior world champion Hriday Hazarika could not make the cut for the Olympic core group shooters who were called for elite national camp after seven months post lockdown, but the teenager more than made up for it while training at his new home range in Narayanpur, Assam.
Hazarika topped the 10m air rifle trials at Karni Singh Range on Saturday, with a high score of 253.2 in the final. It was more than the current world record of 252.8 by Chinese Yu Haonan. In the final, second placed Aishwary Pratap (251.5) kept pace with Hazarika in the first two series, but was soon left behind. Hazarika drifted away from the rest of the field consistently hitting the inner circle. He shot five 10.8s and two 10.9s in the 24-shot final.
The two Tokyo Olympics quota winners – Divyansh Panwar and Deepak Kumar – could not make the cut for the eight-man final, finishing 13th and 17th in the qualification that was topped by Punjab’s Arjun Babuta with a score of 629.6.
The scene was played out even in 10m women’s rifle competition where Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil failed to make it to the final. Apurvi missed it narrowly at 9th place (625.9) while Moudgil finished at 19th position. There were no such jitters for World No. Elavenil Valarivan, who won the final with a score of 251.7. Nisha Kanwar topped the qualification (631.8).
It is the first competition shooters are facing in almost a year – after the pandemic-- and there were some nervous moments. Hazarika too felt the nerves in the qualification but picked himself up in the final.
“All the shooters are returning to competition after a long gap and everyone was struggling a bit to be in that zone. I also had some trouble towards the end of the qualification round but I am very happy with my final result,” says 18-year-old Hazarika.
After the high of 2018, when he became the junior world champion in Changwon, Hazarika went off the radar next season. “My performance was not very good. I was not in the senior team in 2019. It was an important year in the Olympic cycle. I had few injuries also,” said Hazarika.
“I needed some rest and work on physical and technical aspects. After the lockdown, I thought this is the best time to do that. I trained hard with my physical trainer. I worked on muscle strengthening, stamina and endurance. I was doing a lot of running. All that has helped,” he said.
For the shooting part, Hazarika was in touch with junior national coach and former international Suma Shirur. “Mam used to give me tasks to prepare myself and I used to complete that. I was also taking part in some online matches.”
Hazarika was fortunate that his father was giving finishing touches to a 10m range at their home when the lockdown happened.
“We just had to import a few equipment which we did after the lockdown. So from August onwards I was able to train at my home range,” said Hazarika who would be hoping to repeat his performance at the second trials on Sunday.
