20-05-2025
From shadow shooting to Junior World Cup silver: Adriyan's journey
CHENNAI: The day when Adriyan Karmakar shot silver in prone on his debut at the junior World Cup at Suhl (Germany), thousands of miles away one person was silently admiring his son's effort. It is not easy to be born into a shooting family where a father has left an illustrious trail of records and medals. It's never easy to emulate such a star. 'I am emotional because in 2010 I had won a silver at the same event (but senior) in Sydney,' Joydeep told this daily. Adriyan lost the gold to Sweden's Jesper Johansson by just 0.3 points. Griffin Lake (USA) won bronze with 624.6 points.
For Adriyan, who started shooting at seven and competed at the senior nationals three years later (it was allowed by the National Rifle Association of India back then), however, the path he chose was not easy. Father Joydeep was not just an incredible shooter, he finished fourth at the London Olympcis, but is an able master (coach) with a keen eye for talent. Sitting in Bhopal, he was recollecting the day when he had a serious discussion with his son about pursuing the sport.
'It must be when he was around 16 or 17 and it was not a discussion,' he corrected the word and said it was a spat. 'I thought he was not being too serious about the sport and I asked him to quit. I told him shooting is not what you should do. There was a lot of tension and he said that his place was in the shooting range and he shall shoot. I told him if he wants to shoot he has to be serious and I will support him financially, morally and mentally.'
Joydeep realised that brought in a kind of transformation in his son. Months later he went on to win at Khelo India Games and worked very hard to improve his game. 'He was mentally in the sport,' he said.
Still, Joydeep was not expecting this kind of results from 20-year-old Adriyan. 'I was hoping for a score around 620-624 but a 626.7 off 60 shots should be considered great,' said the father. In fact, Adriyan started shadow shooting in Kolkata and continued with it for quite some time. 'He won a medal without shooting in a range because we did not have one in Kolkata,' he said.
