Here's how Deepak put in the hard yards to win silver at Asian Games 2018

Shooter Deepak Kumar poses with his silver medal yesterday. Pic/PTI

Deepak Kumar's silver medal show in the 10m air rifle event at the Asian Games here in Palembang yesterday was his first major individual medal in international competition. That it didn't seem so, given the confidence with which he wielded his rifle, is another story. Deepak shot a final score of 247.7 points to finish second only behind defending champion Tang Haoran of China, who shot an impressive Asian Games record of 249.1 points to clinch top honours.

In the qualification, Deepak was slow off the blocks and his top shot was a 10.6. However, in the final, he shot above the 10.6 mark thrice, including one perfect shot of 10.9, besides a 10.8 and 10.7. He was under immense pressure because he was not in a great position on the leaderboard initially. The 10.8 shot catapulted him into the No. 2 spot and he followed that with a perfect 10.9 to consolidate his silver medal position. This kind of precision shooting doesn't come overnight but after meticulous practice and National Rifles Association of India's (NRAI) Observer of rifle and pistol events, former shooter Ronak Pandit explained just how Deepak has done the hard yards in this context.

Ronak Pandit

"I have been talking to Deepak and his coaches and they told me that they trained in a unique manner. They made Deepak practice a routine called 'shooting on demand'. It's a form of precision shooting, where a shooter can hit the exact points he needs after continuous and sustained practice session. For example, Deepak will be given 10 shots and he will be told to hit a perfect 10.9 at least thrice," Pandit explained to mid-day here yesterday.

The process is focused on achieving the goal of precision shooting, said Pandit, a former gold medallist in the 25m standard pistol pairs event at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia. "The training process helped narrow down Deepak's focus on exactly what he wanted to shoot and when. This is critical because in a crunch, if a shooter is lagging behind, if he can shoot the exact points he needs to get ahead, he cannot fail. Deepak has done this brilliantly in this competition," said Pandit.

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