This has been a season of firsts for Indians at the ongoing Asian Games in Indonesia. After Bajrang Punia emerged from behind the giant shadows of the iconic Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt to become the “new face of Indian wrestling”, the next three gold medallists — Vinesh Phogat in women’s wrestling, Saurabh Chaudhary, shooting and now Rahi Sarnobat, also in shooting, have all charted a new course for themselves within their own sport.
If Saurabh became the youngest Indian to win a gold at the Asian Games, Vinesh became the first Indian woman to strike gold in wrestling and two days later Rahi Sarnobat has become the first Indian woman to win an Asian Games gold in shooting.
Rahi is not one of those high-profile shooters on the Indian scene. She keeps to herself and calls shooting her “life” — little wonder then, her middle name is Jeevan (life). When she is not shooting, she prefers a quiet read and is currently reading the Marathi translation of a book by Kannada writer SL Bhyrappa, one of India’s foremost novelists.
Eyes on Korea
With the Gold medal sealed, her next assignment is Changwon, Korea, mention of which brings a smile to her face. For it was in Changwon in 2013 that Rahi won her first World Cup medal. “I hope Changwon is lucky for me again,” she says.
Meeting the media after the gold, the shy Rahi, said, “This (medal) was important for me to open my mind. It has taken me to the time I was winning medals," said the Kolhapur-born shooter, whose next aim is to confirm an Olympic quota place at the upcoming World Championships. Rahi first hit the spotlight in the Youth Commonwealth Games in Pune in 25m Pistol. She went on to add a silver behind Anisa Sayed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. At the same Games, she teamed with Anisa to win the Pairs gold. Four years later in Glasgow, the Pairs event was removed from the programme, but Rahi went on to win the individual event in Glasgow. That same year she was third in Team’s event alongside Heena Sidhu and Anisa at the Incheon Asian Games.
It was around the same time that she had an elbow injury and that set her back. The following year was one of rest and recovery periods — from fatigue and injury. By 2016, the injury had altered her style a little and the results were not forthcoming.
That was the time she learnt about Munkhbayar Dorjsuren, a Mongolian-born shooter, who won a bronze in 1992 Olympics.
Later Dorjsuren moved to Germany and won a bronze medal for her new country, Germany, at the 2008 Olympics. She also won the World title twice in 1998 and 2002. Dorjsuren had all that Rahi needed.
Change of technique
“I came to know that she retired after 25 years of shooting. We had one trial training camp in July last year. After that I decided to hire her as personal coach. Of course she is expensive and I could not afford her with the salary I get,” revealed Rahi.
Rahi did not have the money that would be needed to get Dorjsuren as her personal coach. But she did not back down. She used the cash awards gained from Glasgow and earlier successes to get Dorjsuren.
Here in Jakarta, the gold medal did not come easy. She was tied with Naphaswan Yangpaiboon of Thailand, a 2017 World Cup winner. And it took two shoot-offs before she won the gold. In another time, with another coach, Rahi may not have scaled this peak. But things had changed in the past year.
On Wednesday, soon after the golden effort, the now 49-year-old Dorjsuren said, “I had to change her technique and I also worked a lot on the mental aspect of her game. She was already a high-level shooter and needed some tweak in her game. It was a close final but I had prepared her for the shoot-off.”
When the event was over and the gold won, the normally reticent Rahi rushed to hug Dorjsuren. Rahi had not won a major event since Glasgow in 2014. And now this. An Asian Games gold is way more difficult than Commonwealth Games. Rahi’s approach and technique had changed for the better and now the results were beginning to show.
Dorsjuren was indeed a wise investment, as more riches and medals await Rahi Jeevan Sarnobat.