Archer Rajat Chauhan and his 'golden' dreams

JAIPUR: Yet to 'strike gold' in the World Championships, India's first individual medal winner in international archery Rajat Chauhan has bigger goals in sight. First a gold in compound archery in the Worlds followed by a switch to recurve to live his dream of a podium finish at the Olympics, are the boxes he is determined to tick.
"My immediate goal is to win gold in the Worlds and after that I will switch to recurve and fight for a spot in the Indian team with an aim to win a medal in the Olympic Games," said the compound archer from Rajasthan.
The stocky youngster was supposed to participate in the Archery World Cup to be held in Antalya, Turkey, in May but the coronavirus scuppered that chance.
FATHER SELLS CAR TO BUY A BOW
The ambitious go-getter people see now, was once a couch potato, as anyone in their teens clueless what the future holds for them. It was his father Tarachand who imbued in him the realisation of doing something worthwhile in life and in his efforts to make his son a known archer, he even sold his car to buy a bow for him.
"Papa had to sell his second-hand TATA Indica in 2011 to buy a new compound bow because the one I possessed had stopped functioning properly and my participation in the Senior National Archery Championship in Jamshedpur was due. The bow had cost us around 1.5 lakh," recalled the Arjuna award winner.
It was a watershed moment for Rajat, who was then 17 years old. While he felt the weight of responsibility, the archer from Jaipur realised how desperately his father wanted him to build his own identity. "My father is a private lawyer and his income varies according to the number of clients he gets. Since he was the sole bread-winner in our family of five, we led a moderate life. Every saving had a dream tug to it. So, buying our first car was a sort of event for all of us. Selling it to buy a bow for me left me moved. It made me more serious towards what I was doing. It was a kind of responsibility, but I was up for the challenge," recalled the 25-year-old. Rajat won a double gold and shot his way into the senior national team through the Nationals using the same bow.
BREAKOUT YEAR
Talking about the breakout year and the bow with a Midas touch, the 2018 Asian Games silver medallist said, "Not just two gold medals, I even made two records as I was the first to score 702/720 and a perfect 150/150 in two events at the Nationals. My first international assignment, the Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok in 2012 was a memorable one. I literally struck gold, won gold in the men's compound team event, in mixed team event and won silver in the individual event."
Though Rajat has lost count of the number of bows he has used since the beginning of his career as an archer, all he remembers is the priceless contribution of the third bow. Though it came at a hefty price of around Rs 1.5 lakh, it altered Rajat's life in a way he never imagined. "I am really thankful to my father that he pushed me to do something in life. Even though my future as an archer was not secure, he made sacrifices. It feels good that I could repay the faith he had in me. If today I could gift him a car and could bear my sister's wedding expenses, it is all because of him."
POOR IN ACADEMICS
This is how things have transpired since 2009 when the archer had first picked up a bow. "Had my father not pushed me to pick up a sport and devote time in it, I would have ended nowhere. I was a bad student and a reluctant child. The day papa asked me to visit the archery ground, I came back and lied saying I have been asked to get a bow, else I will not be allowed. The very next day I got my first bamboo bow. There was no option but to start the training and from there my journey as an archer began. I had put studies at the back burner. You won't believe that I cleared Class XII boards in 2018, and the efforts for the same have been going on since 2011," said the 2015 World Championships individual silver medallist. Every time the exams came, Rajat had a tournament to play.
From a low achiever as a student to a self-driven sportsman, sky's the limit for the young archer.