Lawyer-Turned-Shooter Abhishek Verma Will Represent India In Tokyo Olympics
Abhishek Verma bagged a Tokyo Olympics quota berth by winning gold in the mens 10m air pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Beijing. The Haryana man called himself a hobby shooter after winning a bronze medal in the Asian Games last year - his international debut at the age of 29. Unlike other athletes he didnt share his medal pictures on the social media too as he is not there at all.
Abhishek Verma never ceases to surprise. The Haryana man called himself a 'hobby shooter' after winning a bronze medal in the Asian Games last year - his international debut at the age of 29.
He was at it again on Saturday. The lawyer-turned-shooter bagged a Tokyo Olympics quota berth by winning gold in the men's 10m air pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Beijing.
And he didn't stop there to celebrate his win and let it all sink in. Instead, Abhishek preferred to train for an hour after the medal ceremony and the dope test. "I haven't seen anyone do that. I was expecting him to party and celebrate," former shooter and now a national coach, Samaresh Jung, told TOI from Beijing.
Unlike other athletes, he didn't share his medal pictures on the social media too, as he is not there at all.
"I am not on social media platforms and I don't use a mobile phone because I don't want to. I want to focus on my shooting than anything else," he told TOI after the match on Saturday.
Surprising, but then Abhishek is different from most of his contemporaries in the world of shooting. A BTech in computer science who went on to get a degree in law, Abhishek took up the sport in 2015 - as a hobby - at the age of 25. He made it to the Indian team only in early 2018.
Wasn't aiming for gold: Verma
Within three months, Verma had the Asiad medal in his bag. He made his World Cup debut two months ago in New Delhi, but a score of 576 wasn't enough to take him beyond 24th position. Making a cut to the 8-man final was out of his reach.
It was disappointing for Abhishek, but he considered it as a reality check and worked harder to improve his shooting.
Abhishek's feat on Saturday was commendable, considering it was his only second World Cup appearance. He won gold in a field that boasted of Beijing Olympic champion Pang Wei of China and multiple World Cup medallist and former world record holder in this event, Oleh Omelchuck of Ukraine.
The Indian qualified for the final by scoring 585, his personal best, and later scored 242.7 to clinch gold. He was 2.3 points ahead of Russia's Artem Chernousov (240.4), while South Korea's Han Seungwoo bagged bronze with a score of 220.
Although Abhishek had been aiming to win a quota for the Tokyo Games, he didn't expect it to come so early. "I wasn't aiming for the gold or the quota here, but I had been working really hard for long," Abhishek said.
With Abhishek's quota, Indian shooting has got five berths in the Tokyo Games. In his event, 10m air pistol, India has got the maximum of two berths - Saurabh Chaudhary had secured a quota place in the New Delhi World Cup in February.
"I learned a lot from the Delhi World Cup. I focused more on working on my mistakes," the shooter added.
To put things in perspective, since the Delhi World Cup in February, Abhishek visited his family in Palwal, Haryana - which is only 80km from the Capital - only once.
"He came home directly from the airport after the Asian Airgun meet in Taiwan earlier this month. He stayed overnight and went back to the camp in Delhi," his mother Kusum told TOI.
"But we don't complain. He is working hard towards his goal of making it to the Olympics and we are happy that he is getting the results," the proud mother said.
Son of a sitting District & Sessions judge, law was an obvious choice for Abhishek. But his passion for shooting seems to have come from his love for thriller movies and television series. "He was a huge fan of television series CID. He also watches all action movies," his mother said.
