Young India shooter Anish Bhanwala targets gold

At 15 and still at high school, he was India’s youngest gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast in April when he won the 25-meter rapid fire pistol shooting event in a meet record. He had to tone down the celebrations to study for exams, but he’s back on target in competition now as part of India’s 524-strong delegation for the Aug 18-Sept 2 Asiad in the Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang.

Anish already has won a number of other international titles, including the ISSF Junior World Championship, the Commonwealth Shooting Championship last year and the ISSF Junior World Cup this year.

Anish comes from a middle-class family which didn’t have any background in the sport, but took an interest in shooting after starting to train for the multi-discipline modern pentathlon. His father bought him a second-hand pistol and his career took off from there. The youngster moved in 2014 from Haryana to settle in Delhi, where he has the best facilities for practice.

While Anish and another rising star, Manu Bhaker made the squad in pistol events, there were contentious selections with former World No. 1 Heena Sidhu missing some events, and 2012 Olympic bronze medalist Gagan Narang missing out on the squad entirely.