The noise sounded like a crashing wave. The Chinese fans, rattled by some exemplary shooting from Swapnil Suresh Kusale, roared for him to flounder. His eight years of international experience and countless routines behind him, Kusale stood ramrod straight under the spotlight. Fifty metres away waited the perfect tease – the concentric rings that define his sport and the innermost dot that shooters work so hard to hit.
Kusale didn’t need a 10.9. Moments ago, he had shot a jaw-dropping prone series that had pushed him to the gold medal position. No Indian had ever been there. Gagan Narang, an Asiad bronze medallist in 50m 3P, sat among the VIPs, his camera ready to capture the moment. Kusale had no business to fail, and yet when he pulled the trigger, a gasp of disbelief escaped from those present. The electronic scoreboard read 7.6. You rub your eyes and look again. It’s still 7.6.
Those in the Indian camp sank into their seats. Hands on head, eyes wide, mouth agape. They might as well have seen a ghost. Kusale stood motionless in Lane 2, but you could sense his heart break. The ignominy of a 7, the pain of squandering the chance of making history, the curse of the big final; you know he felt because, sitting in the arena, you felt it too.
And then, the roar. A group of Chinese, delirious now, turn towards the Indians – this correspondent included – and burst out laughing. The mocking is so evident but you are dazed to look away. In one shot, Kusale had gone from gold medal position to fifth. Only two Indians had climbed the podium in 50m three positions at the Asiad before, none had won gold. On the verge of history, Kusale had combusted.
He looks at his weapon for a moment that seems to last an eternity. He begins to pick the pieces of his equipment, and one would assume the shattered heart. He trudges back to the Indian corner, which slowly rises to applaud. That’s that then for him.
Kusale had ended the kneeling segment of the competition (first 15 shots) at third, ending it fourth. The scoreboard shows a drop of one spot, but in less than an hour and between going from third to first to fourth, he has lived the microcosm of an athlete’s life. The pulsating high of the three flawless prone series where his lowest hit was a 10 and the highest a 10.9 to the ripping low that saw him shoot a score that would put amateurs to shame.
“Well, this is 3P. It is brutal,” Narang would say. “I have seen Olympic champions do much worse. It is a brutal discipline.” Kusale doesn’t break down, at least not in public. From behind the shooting lane, his eyes are fixed on the scoreboard.
Two lanes to his right, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar is meeting an opposite fate. Having struggled in the kneeling and prone positions, he begins the standing round – his favourite – in fifth place.
He claws his way back to third, drops to fifth, and rises to second as the pecking order changes with each shot. With Kusale out, the onus is on Tomar to deliver a medal, and the youngster has suddenly found his groove. He goes 10.6, 10.4, 10.5 and 10.3 in the elimination series to prevent a Chinese 1-2. Linshu Du is a bridge too far, but Jiaming Tian is pushed to third. Tomar needs a 10.7 to win, he manages a 9.7 instead. “I was thinking of shooting a perfect shot. But it didn’t go that way,” he would say.
The silver though means the 21-year-old has medalled in each of his four competitions in Hangzhou.
“I’m feeling extremely good. We have been practicing very hard for this competition. Winning a medal means achieving my goals, and I’m very happy,” he said.
Earlier, the men’s 3P team of Kusale, Tomar and Akhil Sheoran shot gold with a world record score of 1769. Tomar and Kusale led the charge with 591 points each followed by Sheoran, who shot 587. China’s Linshu Du, Hao Yu and Jiaming Tian were next with 1763 followed by South Korea’s Kim Sangdo, Kim Jong-hyun and Mo Dai-seong, who aggregated 1748.
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