Rhythm’s progression: From being fascinated by her father’s service revolver to winning 10m air pistol bronze at World Cup

It was in 2016 that Narender took Rhythm to the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi from their Faridabad home. At the range, Vineet Kumar, a national-level shooter and Narender’s colleague trained Rhythm.

“I knew that she would be training with passion once she started training. While I would be away on duty, my wife Neelam would take Rhythm to the shooting range. Later, we also got a basic range made at our official residence and when I would return from my duty, I would often find her practising at the home range,” Sangwan recalled.

Coach Vineet Kumar is the one who decided to make Rhythm a pistol shooter.

“On the first day of training, when I made her do shadow practice, she did not hesitate for even a second. Normally kids of that age want to shoot straightway with the pistol. It made me believe that the girl had a lot of patience and she has maintained that trait throughout her career. Whether it was regarding the pistol grip, wrist position or elbow and arm posture, she has always followed it ardently. She shoots ten shots in two-hour practice sessions as well 150 shots with ease and that has helped her in both 10m as well 25m, especially in the rapid-fire stage,” Kumar said.

Last year, Sangwan came agonisingly close to winning the Paris Olympics quota for India in the 25m pistol event at the ISSF World Championships in Cairo. The Haryana youngster had qualified for the eight-shooter relay match final consisting of two relays of four shooters each and was leading in the first-ranking relay match with 11 hits after the third series. However, the youngster missed all her shots in the fourth series to bow out of the medal match.

“When she returned from Cairo, she was disappointed about missing the Paris Olympics quota. But she was not ready for the Olympics yet. It took some time but she put it behind the disappointment. She knows there are still some areas where she needs to improve,” Kumar said.

On Wednesday, Sangwan shot a qualification score of 581 to qualify in the third spot in the eight-shooter final. In the final, Sangwan was ranked fourth after the first series before she dropped to fifth spot after the second series with a score of 98.7. The two-shot elimination series saw the Haryana shooter catching up with the top four and climbing up to the second spot before an 8.8 made her drop to third place. She shot a 10.4 to assure herself of at least a bronze medal trailing the Ukrainian by one point before she finished third in the final.

“During training too, we put emphasis on rapid fire and dual matches as she practices precision in the 10m pistol training too. Today also, she recovered well after the first two series in the final and remained consistent in the two-shot elimination series and the experience of rapid fire stages of the 25m event helped her in the 10m final,” Kumar said.