Ask him why it took him so long to arrive, and he’s as candid as one can be. “May be I was not as strong mentally,” says the 28-year-old son of a teacher father and sarpanch mother from Kolhapur, who began shooting in 2009, made his international debut in 2012 but took another 12 years to make his Olympic debut
India’s 50m rifle 3p bronze medal-winning shooter Swapnil Kusale takes a selfie with gold medallist China’s Liu Yukun (center) and silver medallist Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine (left) atop the victory podium in Paris yesterday. Pics/AP; PTI
Swapnil Kusale doesn’t quite know just why it has taken so long for him to be at the Olympics, where he landed a medal on debut on Thursday.
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A medal that’s definitely life-changing for him personally, but also historic in significance for Indian shooting given that it’s the first time that a rifle shooter has managed to do it in the physically draining 50m rifle 3 positions event.
Ask him why it took him so long to arrive, and he’s as candid as one can be. “May be I was not as strong mentally,” says the 28-year-old son of a teacher father and sarpanch mother from Kolhapur, who began shooting in 2009, made his international debut in 2012 but took another 12 years to make his Olympic debut.
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Despite feeling the butterflies in the stomach on the morning of the final, Kusale was able to control his emotions. “Today, the heartbeat was on the higher side. I just tried to control my breathing and did not try anything different,” said Kusale, a ticket collector with Indian Railways who doesn’t have to report for duty due to his shooting commitments.
An opening shot of 9.6 showed nerves, but he regained focus to produce a highly consistent show in kneeling, prone and standing position. His four 9s came in kneeling and standing while he came up with higher 10s regularly in the prone position. However, his high 10s in the standing position got hi the medal.
During the high-pressure final, Kusale said made a conscious effort not to pay attention to the scores. “To be honest, I did not see the scoreboard. I was listening to the announcements of scores, but was ignoring it,” said Kusale.
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