Dad’s brave call proved right for double Asian Games medallist Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar

HANGZHOU: When the shootoff shot released by Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar hit a 10.8 to beat compatriot Rudrankksh Patil‘s 10.5 on Monday, both were already Asian Games gold medallists. With Divyansh Singh Panwar included, the trio had won the men’s 10m air rifle team gold with a world record score of 1893.7. But it was that 10.8 in the individual final at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre that took Tomar eight years back, when the responsibility to decide the road ahead for him was in the hands of his father.
Beating Rudrankksh in the shootoff assured a second Asian Games medal, a bronze, for the 22-year-old Tomar two hours apart, as a dejected Divyansh sat out despite finishing in the top-eight bracket.
The rule of only two shooters from one country in the final meant Divyansh had to be left out as the lowest placed among the three in the qualification round. He had scored 629.6, while Patil totalled 632.5 and Tomar 631.6.
“It was unexpected that there would be a shootoff between two Indians. But I only had in mind that I wanted to win on this shot…I released well and hit 10.8,” said the 22-year-old Tomar, a product of the Madhya Pradesh (MP) State Shooting Academy.

The look he wore on his face was a mix of redemption and relief, after he and his family crossed their fingers after the decision they took in 2015.
“I wasn’t too good in academics. My (cousin) brother Navdeep talked to my father that he should let Aishwary try shooting,” he said recalling the moment from eight summers ago.
Navdeep himself was a shooter, who also learned the sport at the MP academy in Bhopal.
His father, a farmer from the thinly-populated Ratanpur village in Khargone district of MP, couldn’t come to terms with the fact that academics will take a back seat for his son. The ifs and buts weighed heavily on his mind.
“It was a difficult decision for my father to let me leave academics for shooting. He was like ‘what if it doesn’t click, what will he do then?’
“But today I thank him that he took the right call,” said Tomar, who still hadn’t had a proper talk with the family following his twin medals.
The individual final saw China’s Lihao Sheng winning gold with a world record score of 253.3, followed by the silver medallist from South Korea, Hajun Park (251.3). Tomar bowed out in third place with a score of 228.8.
Patil finished an agonizing fourth, but it hadn’t shaken him.
“Not that I slipped out in the bottom half. It’s a fourth position and now I know what I have to work on.”