Born In Nepal, Made In India: Jitu Rai Wins Pistol Gold

 By Sunday night, Jitu Rai simply could not control his excitement. The noisy corridor outside his room, in which he was desperately trying to get some sleep, buzzed with frenzied celebrations as the Indian 10m rife and pistol medallists celebrated their glory. Rai’s roommate, Gurpal Singh — a man who bagged silver in the 50m air pistol — says he spent almost half an hour calming Rai down, telling him his time would come soon.
“I was almost jumping with excitement. It was as if I wanted to go to the range right away and start shooting. I had seen all the other shooters come to the hotel with medals around their neck, celebrating their victories, I needed a medal of my own too,” he says.
The 27-year-old got his medal just 12 hours later, that too in stunning fashion. Tallying a score of 562 out of 600 in qualifying, Rai set a new Commonwealth Games record, topping the standings. In the final, he went one better, scoring a phenomenal 194.1 to clinch gold. Such was Rai’s dominance in the final that bronze medallist Daniel Repacholi of Australia lagged behind by a whopping 27.1 points in the final standings.
But Rai’s first Commonwealth gold medal drew a rather understated response from the shooter. Having become the first Indian to win two medals in an ISSF World Cup, Rai said that he had always been confident of taking home a medal here.
“Since the World Cup medals, my confidence has really increased. I trained keeping a medal as the only goal. When I finished my qualification, I kind of had an idea that the gold was well within my reach. My eye was set, rhythm was good and the excitement of the night before was just helping everything else fall into place,” he says.