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Journalism of Courage
Dhanush Srikanth won the individual and team gold medals in the men’s 10m air rifle junior event at the Asian Shooting Championship in Doha.
While sharing his joy with his parents back in Secunderabad, the 17-year-old used a bit of English and sign language on the video call.
“Dhanush was born with a hearing impairment but we never saw it as something that could hamper his ability and talent. He got his first cochlear implant at the age of one but it was replaced at the age of nine, as it malfunctioned. Me and my wife wanted him to believe that he can achieve anything in life,” his father Srikanth, who works as a project manager in Bengaluru, said.
On Monday, Dhanush paired up with Shreya Agrawal to clinch the gold in 10m Air Rifle mixed team junior title with a 16-14 win over China, and a day later took the individual honours with a score of 248.2 in the final, beating China’s Jiang Xuanle by 2.5 points. Dhanush had shot 625.3 in qualification.
“Dhanush’s biggest strength has been the ability to handle the situation very well and he can execute shots as he likes to and as he has practised in training. In the final, he got a yellow card after he loaded early but recovered. I hope this first international medal will propel him to further glory,” says Suma Shirur, high performance director of the Indian junior team.
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London Olympics bronze medallist Gagan Narang has played a key role in Dhanush’s progress as a shooter. It was an advertisement for Narang’s Gun for Glory academy in 2015 that helped the youngster’s take a big leap in the sport. He won the junior, youth and senior titles in the Telangana State Shooting championships last year and followed that with a gold in U-21 category at the 2019 Khelo India Games in Pune.
“I am happy with the way Dhanush is progressing. He is very persistent in his training and keeps on doing things told to him until he gets it right. I was looking to train a shooter like him and when he came to train, his parents’ first question was whether he can shoot? And I said most definitely yes, as he might shoot better than most of us as his other senses would be stronger. We developed a shooting sign language with him and I am happy that he has been able to turn his impairment into his biggest strength,” says Narang.
Prior to the Asian Championships, Dhanush had shot 252.5 in the junior event at the nationals trials in June, a score better than the world record of 251.2. He followed that score with a score of 252.1 in the senior men’s final in the national trials in September and won the gold medal. Dhanush had shot 626.9 in qualification, better than Narang himself, who managed 623.4.
“When he joined the academy, it posed us a challenge initially. We relied on lip movement and sign language initially apart from making him understand the technical points of the sport on paper and by making drawings. With time, we understood him and he understood us,” academy coach Neha Chavan recalls.
“This year, when he won the gold at the Khelo India Games, it motivated him a lot. His score of 629.7 was as good as those of senior shooters and it gave him a lot of confidence.”
