Young rifle ace Rudrankksh Patil following in Bindra’s footsteps

The 18-year-old, who won the world championships in Cairo, even has sought the guidance of the 2008 Olympic champion’s German coach

Rudrankksh Patil was worried at the official practice session ahead of his World Championship match. The inner 10s were just not coming as consistently as they did in training days before landing in Cairo. At first, the 18-year-old thought it could be an issue with his technique. He made adjustments but nothing seemed to work.

Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil (middle) (Twitter/@Media_SAI)

It was while packing his weapon that the 10m air rifle shooter realised his gun was shaking, not properly slotted within the case. The screws on the barrel weight that controls the recoil system had got loose, affecting the accuracy of his shots. The weapon is so carefully calibrated and even minute alterations can lead to big variations on the target. Despite relief that there was nothing wrong with his technique, he had no practice session to test his weapon afresh before his match.

“Both mine and Kiran’s (Ankush Jadhav) weapons had similar problems, maybe the screws got loose during travel. There was an increase in vibration, thereby affecting the accuracy of my shots. I was just fortunate I noticed,” Rudrankksh says.

“The coaches helped to fix the weapon but I could not sleep the entire night. There was no time to practice and check. We had a match the next day.”

Kiran was first up in qualification and his first series score of 105.6 calmed the nerves of Rudrankksh. “It was such a relief to see that his rifle was now working fine.”

When his turn came to shoot in the next relay, Rudrankksh’s first card was a solid 105.8. It set the tone for a brilliant round. He topped the 60-shot qualification with a high score of 633.9.

The 18-year-old maintained his form in the rankings round and the final, where he came from behind to beat Italy’s Danilo Sollazzo 17–13. By becoming world champion, Rudrankksh emulated his inspiration and Beijing Olympics gold medallist Abhinav Bindra.

Like Bindra, Rudrankksh too likes to test himself in unfamiliar situations. He spends a lot of time experimenting with his weapon and try out in training. At the recent National Games also his weapon went a bit awry on match day.

“Normally these are high-end weapons and as a shooter you just don’t want to tinker with it. It’s too technical and if we have to make any changes in settings we go through company experts. But it’s only a machine and anything can go wrong any day,” says his coach Ajit Patil.

“What sets Rudrankksh apart is that he is so keen to know every part of his rifle, everything about shooting, different techniques. He will keep doing research till he is satisfied. In training, he will do experiments with the weapon and see how it impacts,” says Patil, one of India’s finest shooting coaches.

For someone who was so bored of shooting he didn’t return to the range for six months initially, Rudrankksh chases his dream of winning an Olympic medal.

“I love travelling and that is why I give my best in every competition, so that I get selected. The other thing I love doing is experiment on guns. It usually keeps me occupied the whole day.”

For one-and a-half years during the pandemic when he trained alone in a range, he immersed himself in gaining knowledge on the sport. “It was lonely, tiresome and sometimes irritating. But I worked on my game, did a lot of research, participated in online competitions and slowly I could see the improvement.”

“I follow many shooters, you can learn from every player. You look at their techniques, equipment, and how some of them maintain such high scores. The preparation they do before matches, how they react after a bad shot, how they control a match. Abhinav sir, Gagan (Narang) sir have done so many experiments, they have made it easy for us.”

Rudrankksh has carefully charted his course, be it deciding to train with Ajit Patil or requesting him to shift base to Thane from Kolhapur, or touching base with Bindra’s German coach Heinz Reinkemeier. Patil and his coach have twice visited Germany and are due to attend a 10-day camp in that country from Thursday.

“He is learning how to handle these advanced equipment, the adjustments you can make, pellet testing, etc. He will need this knowledge in future,” says coach Patil.

Rudrankksh got his first big break only last year, winning silver at the junior world championships. Soon, he was selected for the World Cups in Baku and Cairo. Despite not winning a medal, he kept working hard and has been rewarded with his first big victory.

“Competitions are like spaces of boxes that you have to put in the right places. There are only one or two mysterious boxes for which you have to create space and you have to be a good carpenter.”

Rudrankksh has carved the space for one mysterious box – world championships. To find space for the other—Olympics—will be the biggest challenge.