24 June 2019: Baseline Ventures India expanded the list of Olympians managed by the company with the signing of world number one ranked shooter Apurvi Chandela on Monday. Apart from Chandela, the company, which represents and manages some of India's finest athletes and entertainment stars, also announced the signing of another rising star of Indian shooting, Saurabh Chaudhary.
The 26-year-old Chandela, who competes in the 10-meter air rifle event, has been one of India’s most consistent female shooters since her gold medal-winning performance in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. She was also a part of the shooting contingent in the Rio Olympics in 2016. With her current form, which saw her bagging Gold in the ISSF World Cup events in Munich in New Delhi in 2019, she will be India’s one of biggest hopes in the 2020 Olympics scheduled to be held in Tokyo, Japan. In May, she climbed up the ranking to achieve the numero uno position In 10m Air Rifle ISSF Rankings.
Saurabh Chaudhary has been another trailblazer on the shooting circuit for India and has been earmarked for greatness by many after making a remarkable start to his career. Competing in the 10m air pistol event, Chaudhary became India’s youngest Gold medalist in Asian Games held in Palembang last year. Continuing with his good show, the teenage sensation has already won five Gold Medals in ISSF World Cup events held in 2019. Currently, he is the only Indian shooter to win a gold medal in ISSF World Championship, ISSF World Cup, Youth Olympic Games, Asian Games, and Asian Air Gun Championship. After such a prodigious beginning to his shooting career, he is expected to lead India’s medal hopes in the 2020 Olympics.
Both the athletes expressed their delight on getting associated with one of India’s leading athlete management companies. Speaking about the development, Chandela said, “I am really looking forward to my time with Baseline Ventures India who have been the country’s foremost talent management companies. It’s a crucial development in my career and I am hoping it’s a fruitful association which helps me to take my game to the next level.” 17-year-old Chaudhary also had similar feelings. He said, “I have been lucky to have had a few good things happen to me early in my career and this certainly sits right at the top of that list. I am sure this development will help me focus better on my game and hopefully, even better results will follow.”
Tuhin Mishra, MD and Co-founder of Baseline Ventures sounded extremely excited about this development. He stated, “Shooting has been giving us so many moments to be proud of all these years, on as well as beyond the Olympics stage. In Apurvi and Saurabh, we see two athletes who are can put up a strong show on the Olympics stage next year and can bring us some medals. They’re both proven performers and we are extremely excited to have these young talents join the roster of clients we exclusively manage.”
The company that was founded in 2014 is one of the leaders in sports, events, entertainment and licensing in India. They represent and manage some of the biggest names in Indian sports including PV Sindhu, Pankaj Advani, Prithvi Shaw and Ravindra Jadeja among others.