In a high quality topic, Nancy Mandhotra wins 10m air rifle silver

On Friday, merely sooner than she took her place throughout the lane for the women’s 10m air rifle remaining on the ISSF World Cup in Baku, 19-year-old Haryana shooter Nancy Mandhotra found herself questioning what variety of Chinese shooters have been throughout the fray.

The teenager’s trepidation was warranted. She was part of a loaded topic that had three shooters from China, along with reigning women’s 50m 3P Olympic champion and 10m air rifle bronze medallist Nina Christen and Tokyo Olympics fourth-place shooter Jeannete Duestad.

But when the movement began, all these enormous reputations counted for little as a result of the Indian claimed silver with a ranking of 253.3. Only China’s Han Jiayu was greater than her on the day, whereas Huang Yuting and Wang Zhilin have been third and fourth.

🇮🇳’s Nancy as she baggage 🥈at #ISSFWorldCup, Baku🔫
The 19-year-old 🇮🇳 shooter had come 8⃣th Qualification Round nevertheless after an distinctive effectivity throughout the Finals, grabbed the 🥈 throughout the Women’s 10m Air Rifle event 🥳

Well accomplished Nancy! Many congratulations👏🥳 pic.twitter.com/PEl1Bm1ury

— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) May 12, 2023

“It was a very competitive qualification series. To qualify at the eight spot with such a high score meant that Nancy was in good confidence going into the final. Initially, she was a bit nervous thinking about the Chinese, but once she found her rhythm, she was the one who made the Chinese shooters tense. It was a bit unlucky that she could not match or get past Han in the final two shots but then it’s a gold medal performance for us,” talked about Suma Shirur, the nationwide air rifle chief coach.

There was further trigger to have a superb time for Nancy on Friday. She had handed her Standard XII exams with 62 p.c marks.

“Once I was in my groove, I was only concentrating on my shots. To win a medal in a final consisting of the Olympic medallist and three Chinese shooters is one of the special gifts to my parents. When I talked with them after the medal ceremony, I asked them about my marks first but they said my medal is the biggest achievement for them,” the teenager talked about.

Rising from a fall

Nancy’s tryst with capturing started when she had a fall at her home in Kurukshetra.

“Nancy fell on the ramp of our home, which resulted in a back injury in 2018. We spent months visiting doctors in Chandigarh. During one of her PT sessions in the school, the principal asked her why she was missing the session. On knowing of her back problem, she suggested Nancy try shooting practice,” her father Azad Singh recollected.

Starting the sport was an pricey proposition. The family owned ten acres of land throughout the village of Panghala near Karnal. But they moved to Kurukshetra so that the 4 children might get a superb education. The rent for the house throughout the metropolis itself was Rs 10,000 month-to-month. So Azad requested his partner Pramila Devi to mortgage her gold jewellery at a finance agency to get their daughter her first rifle worth Rs 2.5 lakh.

Second silver🥈 of the day as #Nancy shoots 253.3 throughout the women’s 10m air rifle to finish behind China’s Han Jiayu who shot 254.0. Excellent capturing this👏🔥🇮🇳@Media_SAI @DeoKalikesh #CrewIndia #ISSFWorldCup #Shooting #IndiaShooting #Rifle #Baku #India pic.twitter.com/p7kpeJah5k

— NRAI (@OfficialNRAI) May 12, 2023

The teen joined the Karan Shooting Academy beneath coach Jagbir Singh. “She never missed training and would ask her father or elder brother to drop her to the academy six kms away be it rain or foggy weather. We got her another rifle this year worth Rs 3.5 lakh taking another loan. But that’s nothing as compared to her passion,” talked about Pramila.

Nancy rapidly made it to the Indian junior crew in 2020 and was part of the bronze medal-winning junior Indian mixed crew throughout the World Championship in Cairo last 12 months. In the Asian Airgun Championship in Korea, she gained the individual silver medal as successfully mixed crew silver aside from junior crew gold medal.

Having gained the medal, the teenager now has to rearrange for her political science examination, which she had missed on account of selection trials in March.

“When we tell people in our village that our daughter shoots, most of the elders think that Nancy works as an actor in movies. This time, we will show them the rifle. And her medal too!” beamed Azad.