Apurvi Chandela is Pink City's latest shooting star

JAIPUR: Jaipur's Apurvi Chandela took up the sport relatively late. The 21-year-old daughter of a city-based businessman picked shooting as an afterthought. After toying with various weapons, she settled for the rifle as her favourite one and was instantly successful.
The 10m rifle has been her pet event and in 2012, her first year in the senior circuit, she won a team silver medal at the Asian Championship in Nanchang (China).
That was just a beginning for Apurvi as in December of the same year, she became the national champion in 10m rifle, shooting 498.7500 in New Delhi.
Apurvi followed in the footsteps of another shooter from the city, Shagun Chowdhury, who went on to represent India at the London Olympics. Rajasthan has produced a number of quality shooters and is known for its affinity for this sport. The state-of-the-art shooting range in Jagatpura, even though it is yet to be fully functional, has fanned the ambition of shooters like Shagun and Apurvi.
The year 2013 also turned out to be quite productive for Apurvi, as she fired her career best of 413.7 in the new scoring system in World Cup Shooting Competition at Fort Benning in the US. She was the best among Indian shooters. In the same year during a trial for the Asian Shooting Championship, Apurvi scored 399400.
Earlier this year, Apurvi won a gold and a silver at the Intershoot meet in the Netherlands. She has been a regular member of the Indian team and following the Commonwealth Games, her focus will shift to the Asian Games. She is also being looked upon as a medal prospect for the 2016 Olympics.
An Olympic medal is her ultimate goal and with age clearly on her side, Apurvi could well be another Abhinav Bindra in the making.