The Hindu : Sport : An uncomplicated, unusual person

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 23, 2006

Sport

Sport

An uncomplicated, unusual person

Samaresh Jung continues to express his skills consistently at the world level, writes Rohit Brijnath

For the first few days, Samaresh Jung arrived at the Melbourne shooting range, fired a pistol, couldn't miss even if he tried, stuffed his medal in his bag, and pottered off.

Not much has changed lately, except this. Now, says his wife Anuja, he doesn't carry his medals in his bag, they're back in the athletes' village.

We understand. Two medals was fine. Three was bearable. But lugging around, as of Wednesday, five golds and a silver was getting kind of heavy, and the last thing he needs is a sore shoulder. Let's put it this way, if Jung was a country he'd be eighth out of 71 nations on the medal table.

Except Jung, 36, doesn't know what all the hoo-ha is about. It's two hours after his win, and he's at the range, more interested in demolishing his pasta than playing the sporting hero. Champagne? He doesn't drink. Tears? None. Cockiness? Zero. Leaping about wildly? Forget it.

Here's what the CISF inspector says. "I won a medal, fine". You press him and the boy who grew up in an army family, whose two-year-old daughter now tells her parents "When I grow up bring me a new rifle from the market," will just add: "I'm happy for a day". A volunteer tells him he could equal the Games record of gold medals won, and he courteously replies: "I'm just lucky and have good teammates".

This is a pleasant, uncomplicated, amusing, unusual man, William Tell in a banker's body with a Ph.D in modesty. In a Games swarming with washboard stomachs and striated biceps, he's the champion with a paunch who shoots with a thumb casually hooked in his pocket.

But make no mistake. Jung's virtues may not be immediately evident, but part the curtains and look in, and he is fascinating. It is incongruous, for instance, that in a festival of movement, his virtue is to court stillness, but as he says: "Ever tried standing still with your eyes closed and you'll find out how many muscles are at work."

An athlete with a difference

This is an athlete with a difference. If long-distance runners are all heaving lungs, his breathing suggests he's in a self-induced coma; if the badminton star owns a supple wrist, he must own a falcon's eye; if the basketballer is all exuberant aggression, he must find the concentration of a fasting monk; if the squash player eyeballs his opponent, he competes only against his last best score.

When he shoots, his outstretched hand rises in slow motion till it's slightly above the target, he begins squeezing the trigger, his hand falls till it's in line with target, he cements himself into a statue, and completes his trigger pull.

Pressure? Of course it's there, or as an old coach told him, "If you don't feel pressure, you're a fool or dead". Prayer? Not a bad idea, or as he grins, when he's not shooting well, he pleads, "Please help me".

But mostly control is what he is searching for, to quieten his emotions, to banish distraction; he knows what he has to do, but as he says, the challenge is, "can you do it when you want?"

Under scrutiny, when it matters, can you shoot what looks like a bonsai grape from 10 metres, when it's windy?

Yes, he can.

Jung says his scores on Wednesday were good enough to get him into a World Cup final, and his search continues to express his skills consistently at world level. But all men need stepping stones to true greatness and at these Games he's made a fair start by paving them with gold.

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