Know Your Asian Games Girls: Shooter Apurvi Chandela

Jaipur’s Apurvi Chandela was a little late in realising her true calling. Only after toying with various sports disciplines, the 25-year-old favoured the rifle. She already has a National Championship medal, a World Cup medal and a Commonwealth gold in her kitty. The Indian shooter has been putting up excellent performances on the international circuit consistently.

Here’s why you should watch out for the rising shooter:

Born in a Rajput family in Jaipur, Apurvi Chandela's father is a hotelier. Before starting off as a professional shooter Apurvi was interested in a career in sports journalism. Until one day Abhinav Bindra's Olympic gold (India's first individual gold medal) in Beijing inspired her. She is known for working calmly under pressure.

“It’s totally random. I liked watching sports a lot. But since I hadn’t played any seriously, I thought the next best thing would be to become a sports journalist, but seeing Bindra win the gold, I thought why not give it a shot?” Apurvi told Indian Express in an interview.

After that Apurvi and the rifle were inseparable and within four years she was competing on the national circuit.

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Career Highlights

• Apurvi first came into limelight in the year 2011. That year she made it to the national junior team and finished ninth in the Asian Championships with a score of 391.
• On her maiden (her first year on the senior circuit) National Championships in 2012 she made India proud after clinching the bronze medal, also repeated the feat in 2013 and 2014.
• The year 2013 turned out to be in Apurvi’s favour as she fired her career best of 413.7 in the new scoring system in World Cup Shooting Competition at Fort Benning in the US.
• In 2014, the shooter won the Gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, giving a particularly big reason to Indians to celebrate.
• She sealed a berth for Rio 2016, by winning the bronze at the 2015 Changwon World Cup and became the first Indian woman to qualify for the Rio Games. Then a few months later she notched up the silver at the Munich World Cup Finals.
• Also in 2016, Apurvi created history by breaking a world record and winning gold in the 10m air rifle event at Swedish Cup Grand Prix. She shot 208.9 in the final to clinch the top prize and was also named the ‘Shooter of the Tournament’.
• A stunning bronze medal by Apurvi Chandela came at the Commonwealth Games 2018 who had earlier smashed her own Commonwealth Games qualifying record from four years back by scoring 423.2.

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Apurvi Chandela is undoubtedly our favourite amongst the Indian shooters. Shooting games will be held in Jakarta and Palembang in Indonesia from August 18 to September 2

SheThePeople.TV wishes all athletes best of luck at the upcoming Asian Games.

More Power to You!

Feature Image Credit: mensxp.com

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