NEW DELHI: India is hosting some of the best shooters from the world at the World Cup Finals here at the Karni Singh ranges, and it is ironical that Saurabh Chaudhary insists he wants to have a conversation away from the venue, at a cafe.
One of the finest pistol shooters India has seen, Chaudhary is not part of the Indian team anymore. He wants to shun attention these days, when he isn’t shooting, or otherwise.
From being world No. 1 as an 18-year-old boy, to someone who has been away from limelight for more than two years, Saurabh seems to have grown up fast. He is still not a small-talk person, though. So where has he been?
“I have been here… shooting all the time, but not in the Indian team,” he says in a typical Saurabh-like manner. “There is nothing to share, hence I avoid interviews,” he says.
He doesn’t have answers to his prolonged absence. “I did not go underground after the Tokyo Games. I took the result in my stride. I didn’t win a medal, but I made it to the final of one event. I shot well in a few events after Tokyo, but don’t know what happened after that. I was shooting fine earlier, I don’t know what happened suddenly. Everything is the same, except I am not scoring what I used to,” he says.
“I don’t think the scores have gone up. They are the same that I used to hit, but I feel there are many more shooters now who can hit those scores. When I was in the team, there were only a few who could hit above 580. Now, there are many.
“I have been hitting somewhere around 577-580,” he says, adding he hasn’t been able to identify the reason for his below-par scores.
“No, I don’t overthink… haven’t been bothered by what happened in Tokyo. It is past for me.”
But former Commonwealth Games champion shooter-turned-coach Samaresh Jung says: “He has been overthinking. Overanalyzing too.”
Jung, who trains Saurabh, adds: “He may not admit, but he gets worried about the scores. He was a shooter who never bothered about the results. I have seen him shoot 23 straight 10s, without even thinking about the scores. Now he has started to think before his shots.”
“I think I have forgotten the feeling of a good shot,” Saurabh says. “Possibly, because we tend to analyze our bad shots more… we don’t take time to remember the feeling before and after a good shot,” Jung adds.
Saurabh is not thinking about the future.
“I am not thinking about the 2028 LA Games. But I never thought about the Tokyo Games either. I know that I will be part of the Games if I shoot well. I am trying to reach where I had left,” he says.
He is targetting next month’s Nationals.
“It is a fresh start for everybody, let’s see.”
After an hour-long chat, one still can’t figure out what happened to the shooter who had won two World Championships, 12 World Cup (8 gold), one Asian Games gold and many more international medals.
Can he hit the comeback trail? We’ll see.
