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Anish finds his target
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Meet Anish Reddy, the shooting champion in the making
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Anish Reddy
As a boy, Verma Anish Reddy spotted photographs and coverage of shooter Gagan Narang in the media.
The Olympian soon became the youngster’s role model; but the latter never dreamt that he would meet the crackshot or perhaps take part in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games quadruple gold medallist’s pet event, the 10-metre air rifle. As a student of Meridian School, Verma was the chess champion dabbling with table tennis too.
His father Vijaysimha Reddy owned a rifle of Indian make and would often hit the target of a 10-paise coin from a fair distance.
Anish’s grandparents weren’t very supportive of his father though and the latter had to be content with this pastime being nothing more than a hobby.
When Anish was in the ninth standard, he would accompany his parents, his father’s friends and their families to Ooty.
On one such trip, a soft drink bottle was made a target, which many hit with the rifle. Vijaysimha Reddy then replaced the bottle with just its cap. None hit bulls-eye, except Verma, who found the mark thrice!
On their return to Hyderabad, P. Rajagopal Reddy, a national shooter himself and father of Pooja, an accomplished markswoman herself, helped him begin training in the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) range, located in the picturesque Hyderabad Central University campus in Gachibowli.
The Rifle Association of Andhra Pradesh (RAAP) was equally encouraging, allowing him to use the imported SAAP rifle at the range.
The results began to show eventually. In 2004, Anish finished fourth in the prestigious G.V. Mavlankar championships at Coimbatore. Back home, he clinched gold in the Ranga Reddy and Hyderabad district meets, before taking the state crown in 2005. Later that year in December, at the SAAP range, Anish bagged silver in the 49th National championships. He also struck gold in the all India schools meet too.
That he has immense potential became obvious in the National championships at Ahmedabad last December.
With an impressive score of 587 out of a possible 600, Anish won the junior 10-metre air rifle gold, bringing laurels to the state.
The first year CBIT engineering student never fails to mention Gagan Narang in the media.
Anish knows it was hard work that took him to the top. The Indian Airlines Manager has also mentored Anish quite a bit.
“Our real competitors are the Chinese,” Gagan would repeatedly tell Anish, raising the bar for the budding marksman, the advice always on the latter’s mind.
Against the backdrop of lop-sided support for cricket and tennis, sports such as shooting suffer for lack of private sponsorship, even when Indian shooters have repeatedly proved they are as good as the best in the Olympics and other international competitions, feels Anish.
A. JOSEPH ANTONY
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