When Parth Mane video-called his coach Suma Shirur to show his first senior international medal — which happened to be an Asian Games 10m air rifle team silver — on Monday, his teammates Himanshu Dhillon and Rudrankksh Patil stopped by to convey their greetings to the former national rifle coach.
Parth shot some solid inner-10s, Elavenil picked up a bit from an off-colour start but it came a little too late as India couldn’t catch up with Japan and South Korea. The Indian duo shot a solid 634.6 points in qualification, only behind China’s qualification world record score of 638.9.
“It was so nice,” said Shirur, smiling, “because I’ve seen these kids grow up. “His understanding of the sport and what he wanted to do in it was there from when he was very young,” his father, Rakesh Mane, said. “This is all down to his dedication and hard work.”
However, a slow start in the four-team final — in the earlier format, teams fought in gold medal and bronze medal matches — proved costly.
Particularly the 18-year-old Parth, whose shooting ambitions took him hustling from Solapur to Pune to Navi Mumbai. “Apart from being talented, it’s important that an athlete is coachable. You know by the way they adapt to suggestions. “When that change was made, Parth had a dip of three months. “After that, we could see his performance go up again.
And that’s the thing with Parth — he is always open, never rigid, and places trust in the coach,” said the Dronacharya awardee. But he stuck to it,” said Shirur. “He went 8-10 months like that,” said Rakesh. “It was a lot of running around for him.”
At Aichi-Nagoya, he reaped a medal at his debut Games and a fourth-place finish in the 10m air rifle mixed team with Elavenil Valarivan on Tuesday.
