Hangzhou: When it comes to shooting competitions, Olympic Council of Asian (OCA) acting-president Randhir Singh has a special place for trap. Randhir pursued trap shooting with passion, winning gold and bronze medals in the 1978 and 1982 Asian Games respectively.
So, as members of the Indian women's team battled it out for placings in the qualifying round of the women's trap competition at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Sunday, Randhir was watching with a lot of interest.
He had a special interest in following it, not only because the Indian shooters had so far done exceptionally well at the 19th Asian Games but also because his daughter, Rajeshwari Kumari, was in the fray.
Randhir won a team silver in the men's trap team competition in the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi and it was his father Raja Bhalendra Singh, the then OCA president, who awarded him the medals.
On Sunday history repeated itself as Rajeshwari won the silver medal as part of the women's trap team with her father watching from the stands.
"It's really a proud moment for me because I won the silver medal in the men's trap team competition in the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi. Today history has repeated itself. On that occasion, my father as the OCA president awarded me the medal," Randhir said.
So, what did the father tell his daughter the day before she competed?
"I did not speak to her. She asked me not to call her the day before her event. We have talked about other things but not about her competition. She did well today, actually, the entire Indian team did well," said Randhir.
"She has her own team of coaches and sports psychologists. Nowadays the younger generation likes to do things their own way. Also, shooting has changed a lot from my time," said Randhir.
Rajeshwari had a total of 111 on Sunday while her teammates Preeti Rajak and Manisha Keer had scores of 112 and 114 respectively.
The Indian team finished with a score of 337 and finished behind hosts China, who set a new world record score of 357 to bag the gold medal while Kazakhstan took bronze at 336.
Rajeshwari had last month secured an Olympic quota for the Paris 2024 Games.
