Olympic qualification: With women’s 10m air pistol bronze, Palak Gulia makes it 16 out of 16 pistol/rifle quotas for Paris Games

Palak’s father Joginder Singh Gulia runs a construction business in Faridabad. He took his young daughter to Rakesh’s academy in Faridabad and Ballabgarh to train for pistol shooting. The family, which has roots in Nimana village in Jhajjar district, would shift to Gurgaon and later Faridabad to support Palak’s dream of being a shooter.

“She had not seen shooting or knew about the different events prior to joining the academy. But once the coach chose pistol events for her, her focus was on that particular event. It took a lot of time to travel to the academy, so she would take her books along with her or study till late at night to strike a balance,” Joginder remembers.

Two years after she started, Palak would finish sixth in the 10m air pistol event at the 2021 national shooting championships before becoming the champion at the ISSF Junior Cup the following year. The same year, she won the bronze medal in the ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Korea.

“Palak was as focused on her studies as on shooting. So it was easy for me to train her on the basics. She was quick to understand them and it helped me to work on her aiming and wrist position. From shooting close to 50-60 shots, she now shoots 200-250 shots per day which helps her confidence,” says the coach.

Rapid rise

Palak’s biggest breakthrough came at the Asian Games at Hangzhou last year where she became the first Indian woman shooter to win the 10m air pistol gold with a record score of 242.1. After that, she won the National Games title before coming to Brazil.

Indian shooter Palak Gulia bags the 20th Paris Olympics quota in shooting for India and wins a bronze medal in the ISSF Olympic Qualification Championship in Brazil. (Special Arrangement)

On Saturday, Palak qualified for the final in sixth spot along with compatriot Sainyam seventh. Both Indians, along with five other shooters, were competing for two Paris quotas on offer with Elmira Karapetyan of Armenia having already earned one.

After the first series, Palak and Sainyam were joint sixth with a score of 48.3 before Palak climbed to fourth spot with a score of 97.9. At that time, the Haryana youngster was trailing leader Veronica Major of Hungary by 4.8 points. The next 12 shots saw Palak shooting scores of 10.0 or above six times as the youngster sealed the Olympic quota edging out fourth-placed Major.

It meant that the Indian rifle/pistol team has secured all 16 quotas on offer. Asian Games silver medallist Esha Singh had secured the first quota in women’s 10m air pistol.

“The quota pressure is always there since it was the last event for achieving it in pistol. But Palak kept her cool to cut down the deficit and seal the quota. There was a bit of inconsistency initially but I am glad that the quota pressure is off. Once she is back, our focus will be on the four Olympic trials,” shared Rakesh.

The Gulia family knows how Palak will celebrate. “Her 10-year-old siblings Jivesh and Jahnvi, who are twins, are waiting to turn 12 to start shooting. So Palak will be spending some time with them telling them about her experiences in Brazil. Hopefully, she will go to Paris and win a medal to show to them,” says Joginder.