She paints, she raises funds for those in need, she gives her friends psychological counseling and she is a top tier international shooter too. India will have high hopes from World no. 3 in 10m Air Rifle Anjum Moudgil.
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| ANJUM MOUDGIL |
Shooting in genes
27 year old Anjum was born in Chandigrah. She was in secondary school when she took up shooting. It’s like, shooting was in her genes may be, as her mother was also a shooter and used to participate in several competition while she was in her school. And that’s why she has got constant support from her parents in perusing shooting sport.
From Genes to Glories
Anjum started off shooting with pistols in hand. She got into rifle shooting in very unusual fashion. As pistols weren’t available in NCC that time, she gave rifle a try quite helplessly. But it became a blessing in disguise, as she herself says, “I started with pistol shooting but when I joined the NCC in school in 2008, there was only rifles available. At the instance of Col. Chauhan, I experimented with rifle and found it more interesting. …I don’t know whether I would have been able to reach this far if I was stuck with pistol.”
Anjum Moudgil’s 1st break came in 2009 as she won team Bronze in 50m prone event in Nationals. And she came into spotlight when in 2011 National Shooting Championships she bagged 9 medals including 2 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze medals. And from there on her dream has been to participate in Olympics. “I am very happy that I have achieved my target. It was very challenging but to achieve something, struggle is required. I got second rank and I am looking forward to participate in Olympic too.” This is what she said after that huge achievement.
Though she won bronze in Asian Championships junior 10m Air Rifle event in 2014, she had a setback that year as she got injured in backbone and left shoulder while training with heavy rifle. She had to go through three month rehab to recover and then made a strong comeback to the sport.
From Glories to Global
In 2016, she won silver in World University Championships and gold in South Asian Games and her journey sets off. The next year, in Commonwealth Shooting Championships Brisbane she came away with silver in 10m Air rifle and Bronze in 50m Rifle 3 positions. Though she missed the top glory in Goldcoast Commonwealth Games 2018 in 50m Rifle 3 positions, but in qualification round she broke CWG qualifying record by considerable margin scoring 589 and ended up winning silver. 2018 gave her two more silver medals in World Championships hosted in Changwon in individual and team event of 10m Air Rifle category; and another silver medal in ISSF World Cup, Mexico in 50m Rifle 3 positions.
She will be participating in 10m air rifle mixed team event with Deepak Kumar for India in Tokyo. 2019 gave her two huge successes in this category in the form of two gold medals and a bronze one in three ISSF World cup events in Munich and Beijing and Rio respectively, though in all those cases her partner was Divyansh Singh Panwar. It was 1st May of 2019 when she climbed up to her career highest 2nd rank in World Ranking of 10m Air Rifle. The other event she will be representing her nation is 50m Air Rifle 3 positions, the event in which she won silver in 2021 New Delhi ISSF World Cup with the Women’s team category.
Global… and Good-hearted too
The avid abstract artist who has done postgraduate in humanities and also has masters in sport psychology is sub-inspector in Punjab Police. The world has seen new sides of her personality in these covid-days. Moved by the plight of the daily workers and support staffs in the field of sports Anjum auctioned some of her paintings to raise funds for them. She has also been donating completely by herself several times. Not just that, being a sport psychologist she has given some free sessions to some of her friends and fellow shooters too.
Gold for Good-heart in Tokyo?
Tokyo 2021 being her maiden Olympic appearance, she will certainly feel the pressure, but we can expect much more composure than usual from this sport psychologist. She is now focusing more on balancing in training for two of her categories, as she says, “I cut down on the traning time I’ll be giving to 10m now, focusing more on 3 positions.” As of now she ranks 27 in 50m Rifle 3 positions. Though in this particular category it looks a bit tough to step up to podium but CWG record keeps our hope alive. But maybe, we can keep a high hope in 10m Air Rifle mixed team event from this top class rifle shooter trained by Deepali Deshpande. So, as it seems, we can dream of at least one medal of any colour from this phenomenal lady.
Team KheLoVerse wishes her all the good lucks leading to the Olympic Games.
An Article By: Arpan Purkait
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