Deepak Kumar overcomes self-doubts, poor form to secure Tokyo Olympic quota

Deepak shot a score of 626.8 in qualification to finish behind Yukun Liu of China and Taeyun Nam of Korea, who shot scores of 629.0 and 628.9 and qualified for the final with a third spot in qualification. It was Deepak’s third-best score of the year at the international level. In the final, Deepak maintained his composure and didn’t score below 10.0, though he was one of the three shooters in the elimination round.

It wasn’t smooth sailing for Deepak because he suffered from an upper-lip allergy.

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“In Rio, I had suffered dental pain prior to my individual event and here too, I suffered an allergy on my upper lip area. But once I got in the final, I stopped worrying about the allergy and shot well,” Deepak said.

The Delhi-born shooter, whose father Raj Kumar works as a liquor shop manager with Delhi Tourism’s liquor and transportation wing, had won the silver medal in last year’s Asian Games. Post the Asian Games things didn’t go his way.

He changed the shooting jacket he used just after the Rio World Cup in September. The decision back-fired because it resulted in a shoulder injury. He went back to his old jacket but then began experimenting with his ammunition before finding the type which suited him. “We worked with various types of pellets. We also made minor adjustments in the trigger making it bit heavy apart from making the movement of trigger blade closer to his finger. Earlier, it was not that close to his finger and the adjustment helped him,” Deepak’s long-time coach Manoj Kumar said.

After reaching Doha, in a bid to find form again, Deepak worked with coaches Manoj and Oleg Mikhailov towards improving his shooting posture. “We focused on managing the load on the left leg and left part of body and did some exercises, all geared towards improving my posture,” Deepak added.

He has also been listening to audio books while meditating to ensure he is relaxed while shooting.

Changes in training

At 32, Deepak is not old enough to be called an over-the-hill shooter but he is no spring chicken either. But his coaches decided to bring about some changes to ensure he does not get jaded during practice. “We reduced his shooting while training — to 120-130 shots from 200 shots. We also worked on increasing his preparation time to 25-30 seconds per shot from 15-20 seconds earlier,” Manoj said.

The shooter says he remains fit because he follows the regimen he first picked up as a youngster at the Ponda gurukul in Haridwar. He is also inspired by the youngsters who are making progress.

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Divyansh Singh Panwar, 17, had secured the country’s first quota in 10m Air Rifle men event earlier this year. Deepak believes such performances by youngsters bode well for the sport in the country. “Someone reminded me that I turned 32 today (laughs). The key for me is to keep motivating myself and I believe experience teaches you a lot and that’s the advantage for me as compared to youngsters. But I am also motivated by the performance of shooters like Divyansh. They are the present and future of Indian shooting,” Deepak said.

Back home, Deepak’s five-year-old daughter Mishti and two-year-old son Lakshya are eagerly awaiting for him. “Deepak spends most of time at the camp and whenever he gets holidays, he insists on spending his holidays with family in the Ponda gurukul in Haridwar. He also spends 3-4 days meditating at the gurukul. It helps him find the right balance and the whole family understand this,” Raj Kumar, Deepak’s father, said.

This time too Deepak is likely to follow his holiday routine — with the added satisfaction of having bagged an Olympic berth.