Tokyo 2020: Rahi Sarnobat has the form, acumen, and experience for another first in Indian shooting

Rahi Sarnobat knows what it is to perform under the unprecedented spotlight that comes with the Olympics. The 30-year-old is just one of four shooters from the highly-rated, 15-member Indian shooting contingent at Tokyo to have competed at the Games before. She also knows how it feels to be the underdog. Her Asian Games gold came at a time when there were few expectations from her.

Indeed, the shooter has lived the whole gamut of success, failure, injury and comeback in an athlete’s career.

Yet, in a strikingly young and supremely talented Indian shooting squad, Sarnobat has stayed under the radar and quietly gone about her business ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. But based on form and track record, the 30-year-old sports pistol shooter is one of the stronger individual medal contenders for India at the Tokyo Olympics.

Form

In the last international competition before the Olympics, the ISSF World Cup at Osijek, she won the 25m sports pistol in a loaded, world-class field. Her third World Cup gold – with the first coming back in 2013 – was India’s only at the event, an anomaly for the decorated Indian team.