Dhanush Srikanth has added another feather to his cap. After raising the bar by registering world record scores in the national trials, the Telangana boy has become the first shooter with hearing impairment to make it to the Indian national squad. Dhanush, 16, has made his way to the junior (U-21) men’s 10m air rifle team for the Asian Championships to be held in November.
Earlier this month at the national trials, Dhanush had shot scores better than the current senior final world record (251.2) by scoring 252.5 in the juniors final. The score was not considered as official world record as it was scored at a national-level match, but his performance fetched him a place in the Indian squad.
Dhanush, who was born with a hearing loss, took up shooting when he was 14. He trains at Gagan Narang’s Gun For Glory academy in Pune and Telangana. His coach Neha Chavan, a former national shooter, said Dhanush was working on the goal of getting into the team since June this year. “We set goals for all our shooters. In June, I asked Dhanush if he would be able to make his way to the Asian Championships team and he smiled. He has been shooting consistently and it helped him achieve his target,” Neha said.
The qualification world record shot by South Korea’s Choi Changhoon at the 2017 Deaflympics - a quadrennial multi-discipline event for hearing-impaired athletes - was 618.3. The final world record in ‘Deaf category’ (as called by International Committee of Sports for the Deaf) is 205.6, held by Ukraine’s Oleksandr Kostyk since 2016.
Dhanush’s average qualification score in the trials was 628.53, which is at par with international shooters in the open category. His highest final score is 252.5, which is higher than the senior men’s final WR. Dhanush and his parents always wanted him to participate in the open category. “We never made him feel that he needs special attention. As parents we wanted him to play, study and do everything with other normal kids. He went to normal school and before taking up shooting, he completed his black belt level in taekwondo. I feel parents’ faith in the child makes a lot of difference as it gives him confidence,” Dhanush’s father Srikanth said.
