Once afraid to venture out due to hand ailment, Manish Narwal scripts unsung journey to Paralympic shooting gold

Manish Narwal stormed into the record books when he won the gold medal at the Tokyo Paralympics in the mixed 50m pistol SH1 event on Saturday. The shooter from Haryana scored 218.2 points, creating a new Paralympic record enroute to his gold medal.

Hailing from Faridabad in Haryana, he swears by the thought that a man’s thinking and not a physical deformity makes him paralyzed. The thought made the 19-year-old ponder more and motivated him to eventually become one of the best in the business.

Sports have always been on Manish Narwal’s radar. An aspiring footballer, his dreams were cut short by a congenital ailment in his right hand. He knew he was different but never understood the reason behind it. In 2019, speaking to the WOWOWofficial YouTube channel, he said:

"I noticed I was different when I was in the first grade. Something was wrong with my right arm. I cried a lot. I was afraid to be in front of people."

However, Manish Narwal soon realized that there was nothing to ponder about and it was fruitless to cry over spilt milk. Instead, he started dreaming big, and with the motivation of his father — a sportsman himself who was into wrestling — and a family friend, he tried his hand at shooting. He began at the 10X Shooting Academy in Ballabhgarh, near Faridabad, run by coach Rakesh Thakur.

Manish soon took to shooting like a fish to water. Although he started making waves in 2016, he hadn’t heard of the Paralympics or any world-level tournaments for para-athletes. He was simply shooting and competing for fun.

His talent as a para-shooter was spotted by his coach Jai Prakash Nautiyal and he was soon part of the Indian contingent for the 2017 Para-shooting World Cup in Bangkok. Manish Narwal bagged gold in the 10m air pistol SH1 event, setting a new junior world record as well!

#Tokyo2020 #Paralympics Good Morning, India ! 🤩🌻A great news to start the day with.Mixed 50 M Pistol SH1 Event , #Gold and #Silver bagged by our Para Shooter.#ManishNarwal 🥇#SinghrajAdhana 🥈 Many congratulations to both our champions ! #Praise4Para #Cheer4India 🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/EGWHqFzFkN

— Dept of Sports MYAS (@IndiaSports) September 4, 2021

Since then, there has been no looking back for Manish.

Under the guidance of national coach Subhash Rana, he secured a place for India at the 2018 World Cup in France.

With more than 12 international competitions under his belt, Manish Narwal was bestowed with the Arjuna Award in 2020, becoming one of the youngest para-athletes to achieve the honor.

Touching on his mantra of remaining focused, grounded and improvising continuously, Manish said:

“It is important to sometimes forget the defeats and keep working towards bigger goals.”

Manish Narwal's achievements

Manish Narwal is currently ranked No. 2 in the world in the P4 category and No. 4 in P1.

The para-shooter won the gold medal with a world record in P4 and silver medal in P4 team event at the 2021 WSPS in Al Ain, UAE.

The shooter made waves at the 2018 World Cup in France when he won three gold medals in P1 (individual and team) and bronze medal in P4 category team event.

At the Para Asian Games in 2018, Manish Narwal won the gold medal in P1, with an Asian para record, and a silver medal in P4 category.

He has also won three gold medals in P1, P4 and P6 category team events and a silver medal in the P1 category at the 2019 Para-shooting World Cup in Croatia.

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