Rudrankksh Patil focused on training

Rudrankksh Patil with the air rifle gold in the World Cup in Buenos Aires in April.
| Photo Credit: ISSF

Rudrankksh Patil is in pursuit of improvement despite winning a gold and two silver medals in the recent World Cups in Buenos Aires and Lima.

The World champion in air rifle, the 21-year-old Rudrankksh, has in consultation with coach Neha Chavan at Gun For Glory, opted to skip the prestigious World Cup in Germany, to focus on his training and be better prepared for the World Championship and the Asian Championship later in the season.

In a free wheeling chat with The Hindu on Wednesday, Rudrankksh, who has completed his graduation in Geography and aspires to pursue M.A., pointed out that recovery after every competition took at least a fortnight.

“I want to improve my qualification scores. I also want to perform better in the finals,” said Rudrankksh who won the individual gold in the World Cup in Argentina.

He had qualified well in the next World Cup in Lima, but a malfunction of the gun on two successive shots, after the two series of five shots, saw him eliminated in the eighth spot.

It was not his fault, but he had to get his gun back to its best behaviour with professional attention.

“The selection trials are coming up in June. I need to be in good shape,” said Rudrankksh who had narrowly missed the cut for the Paris Olympics, after having won the Olympic quota.

Despite being young, Rudrankksh has already achieved a lot on the global stage, yet, is concerned about his future.

“I was far too focused on shooting in the last seven years. Along the way, I realised that diversifying into education and other activities did help my shooting. I want to qualify through UPSC and serve the country. I hope the Central government makes some relaxation for the elite sportspersons, in terms of age, or get them into the fold by testing their competence with a separate procedure,” said Rudrankksh.

At the moment, the focus is on shooting, and Rudrankksh wants to be on top of his game, to be able to shoot the best scores on command, when required.

Experience and guidance has taught him to stay calm and be ready for any situation and have flexible plans, depending on what works, to reach the best performance.