Former pistol great Jaspal Rana’s obsession and single-minded dedication to the sport has been his hallmark all along his entire journey from the time he emerged on the scene as a precocious talent, annihilating junior records and winning a bagful of international medals. But the one piece of metal that was missing from his trophy cabinet was an Olympic medal. On Sunday, the Padma Shri awardee realised that dream when Manu Bhaker stood on the podium, the bronze sitting nicely on her neck and Jaspal clapping for her in the stands.
Jaspal, maverick even when he was stepping out of his teens, has always perennially been in the news on several counts — be it staging multiple comebacks, trying to salvage his career even when wrinkles started cris-crossing his visage in his late 30s, fighting his own battle with the system or taking a plunge into politics.
That maverick attitude was all too evident when he won three gold medals despite running a 102 degrees fever during the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, a record which no Indian shooter has ever been able to break in the continental showpiece.
His long unkempt hair sticking to his face and sweat dripping as if somebody had emptied a bottle of water on him, he came out of the dope control centre in Doha and punched his fist in the air, just to show he is king.
Nearly 12 years before Doha, at the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, he was only one of four Indians to win a gold in 25m centre-fire pistol, something that truly brought the idea to the fore that Indian shooters had the talent and could become world beaters with a bit of help from the government.
He was assisted in his journey by one of the then-leading pistol coaches in the world Tibor Gonczol, the late Hungarian expert who later settled in Australia and was India’s coach for a long time.
Jaspal has probably inherited that meticulous nature from Gonczol, who used to walk around with a notebook, pencil and a whistle dangling from his neck, making notes of each and everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.
A sepia-tinted image of young Jaspal standing with Tibor still features on his FB page.
Jaspal always aimed for the Olympics but rued that standard pistol and centre-fire pistol were not part of the Olympic curriculum. He detested air pistol and free pistol because they were “slow” events although he still gave it his best shot, but failed.
Jaspal saw an opportunity to bring up talent when he was appointed the junior national coach. That stint saw him spot Manu and Saurabh Chaudhary, both of whom went on to represent India at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
However, a fallout with Manu saw the two part ways before Tokyo, something which caught everyone unawares. That he was a hard taskmaster was all too evident when he was with the Indian team at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games where a 16-year-old Manu, new to the pressure environment, succumbed and Jaspal was furious, to say the least.
Being a precocious talent himself, he thought Manu would be his mirror image, not realising that she was still a shy teenager coming from a small district in Haryana and stepping into the big, ultra-competitive world of sport.
Their breakup happened before Tokyo. As luck would have it, Manu came close to making the 10m air pistol final before a pistol malfunction ended her hopes. Post-Tokyo, things started going downhill for the Jhajjar shooter and just the way they had broken up, the patch-up happened.
Perhaps, she saw in Jaspal the one and only coach who could shape her career. And, maybe, Jaspal saw in her a talent who he could mend and take to the next level. Every session, every trial he kept a hawk’s eye on Manu, not allowing any expert, coach or trainer to come anywhere close to his ward.
He was confined to the spectator’s gallery by the stringent rules of the national federation for personal coaches. But the chemistry and sign language they had forged was enough. Commands were relayed from the stands and accepted on the firing bay.
Everything is plotted to the ‘T’, be it the wooden grip of the pistol, which Jaspal meticulously carves for Manu, or the fine-tuning of her pistols. There is no room for any error at the Olympic level.
Manu still has two more events to go — 25m sports pistol and 10m mixed team — to stake claim to more medals. Jaspal would know like no one else how to push Manu’s endurance levels in the days to come.
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