Gold medal prospect Saurabh Chaudhary makes minor adjustments to pistol grip ahead of Tokyo Olympics

Saurabh Chaudhary, India’s Olympic hopeful in men’s 10 meters air pistol is comfortable with the minor adjustments made to his pistol grip last month, according to an official associated with India’s Olympic preparatory camp in Zagreb, Croatia.

“There was minor adjustment made to Saurabh Chaudhary's pistol grip and foreign coach Pavel Smirnov did the needful as he had the equipment to work on the grip of the pistol,” said the official.

India’s 13-member shooting team, including five pistol shooters, have been camping in the Croatian city of Zagreb since May to prepare for the Tokyo Olympic Games starting July 23. Eight rifle shooters have also made the cut for the Olympics. Two skeet shooters who have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics are training in Italy.

“Since we have reached the home stretch of the preparation, we can only make minor adjustments in equipment or training if at all required as the elite shooters don’t need to learn the fundamentals of precision shooting,” said a coach involved with the national team from Zagreb.

Last month, the Tokyo Olympic-bound shooters competed at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup in Osijek.

Pistol 🔫 head coach Pavel Smirnov making adjustments to the grip of @SChaudhary2002 s weapon as he & coach Ved Prakash look on #zagreb #croatia #tokyotraining #indianshootingteam @WeAreTeamIndia @ISSF_Shooting @Tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/9ajjA3AcNw

— NRAI (@OfficialNRAI) June 14, 2021

India’s Rahi Sarnobat won gold in the women’s 25m pistol while Saurabh Chaudhary won bronze in men’s 10m air pistol event. Saurabh Chaudhary paired with Manu Bhaker to win silver in the mixed 10m air pistol event. India also won bronze in women’s the 10m air pistol team event at the Osijek World Cup.

“The emphasis after the Osijek World Cup has been on quality training and not volume. Since the beginning of this month there has been one training session a day. The shooters go to ranges in the morning while physical fitness and recreational activities are for the evening sessions,” said the coach.

Saurabh Chaudhary and other medal hopefuls in the Indian shooting squad

The Indian shooting squad is expected to leave for Japan by next weekend. The shooting competition in Japan starts on July 24.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) is yet to finalize the names of the coaches who will accompany the Indian team to Japan. There are five coaches with the pistol team in Zagreb including foreign coach Pavel Smirnov.

Samresh Jung (high performance national pistol coach), Ved Prakash (assistant coach), Jaspal Rana (junior development coach) and Ronak Pandit (high performance manager) are the other four experts overseeing the training of elite pistol shooters in Croatia.

Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma (men’s 10m air pistol), Manu Bhaker (women’s 10m air pistol and 25m pistol), Yashaswini Deshwal (women’s 10m air pistol) and Rahi Sarnobat (women’s 25m pistol) are the five pistol shooters who will be seen in action in Japan.