YOUNGSTERS Himanshu Dhillon and Rudrankksh Patil held their nerve in a gripping shoot-out to win the individual silver and bronze medals respectively in the men’s 10m air rifle while the duo also combined with teenager Parth Mane to add a team silver at the Asian Games here on Monday. The three medals took India’s shooting tally to five -- four silver and a bronze -- but once again there was no getting past China’s Paris Olympics double gold medallist Sheng Lihao, who lived up to his billing as theWorld No 1 with another commanding performance. Sheng produced a Games and Asian record 254.2 to take gold, while Himanshu, who celebrated his 21st birthday on Monday, shot 252.4 for silver. Rudrankksh (230.9), who had looked capable of challenging for the top spot after a strong start, finished third. For India, it was nevertheless a significant finish in an event where every decimal can separate a medal from disappointment. The individual medals came barely an hour after Himanshu, who is competing in his maiden Asian Games, former world champion Rudrankksh and 18-year-old Mane had combined for silver in the team event. China, once again, set the benchmark. Its trio of Sheng, Changhong Zhang and Sihan Ma amassed 1899.0 points to improve its own world record of 1898.4 set in Cairo last year. South Korea took bronze with 1884.2, while India’s 1890.1 secured silver. But the individual final had a distinctly Indian storyline, with Himanshu and Rudrankksh locked in a tense battle for the minor medals while Sheng steadily pulled away. Rudrankksh had initially looked the likelier Indian to challenge the Chinese star. THE wrestling mat did not quite work out for Himanshu Dhillon but it left him with something far more valuable -- a never-saydie attitude that came to the fore on the biggest day of his young shooting career. On his 21st birthday, Dhillon refused to settle for bronze, fought his way past team-mate and former world champion Rudrankksh Patil and walked away with a silver in the men’s 10m air rifle at the Asian Games here on Monday. It was his first senior international medal and, fittingly, it came on a day when the lessons from his brief tryst with wrestling proved as important as his shooting skills.

 

“When I started shooting, I felt, ‘Kahan panga le liya maine’ (have I taken the right decision by taking up shooting). When I used to lie down on the mat, I would wonder if I had made the right choice,” Dhillon, the junior World Cup champion in New Delhi last year, said following the biggest achievement of his career. “Today, after winning the silver, I realise whatever decision I took was right. It was not a wrong decision.” Shooting, after all, was never part of the original plan. His father had sent him to Gurukul Pundri in Kaithal to make him selfreliant. Dhillon was also a little on the heavier side as a youngster, and his uncle Hardeep Singh Dhillon -- an Olympian who competed at the 2016 Rio Games -- suggested wrestling. But the young Dhillon soon discovered that wrestling was a different kind of battle. “Wrestling is a hard, difficult sport. I was not able to adjust to its rigours,” he said. There was, however, a shooting range at the gurukul. Dhillon started spending time there and gradually found himself drawn towards a sport that would eventually change the course of his life. His parents made their own sacrifices along the way. They left their village and moved to Kaithal to support their son, making Monday’s medal particularly satisfying for Dhillon. “My parents also made sacrifices. They left their village and came to Kaithal. So I am very happy that their sacrifices have borne fruit,” he said. The gurukul may no longer exist -- Dhillon believes it has since shut down -- but what he learnt there stayed with him. It surfaced again when the qualification round threatened to become hectic. His coach’s message was simple: forget the medal, forget the final and concentrate on the next shot.