Anjali Bhagwat – Professional Indian Shooter

Anjali Bhagwat

Anjali Bhagwat is one of the professional Indian Shooter. She was born on December 5th, 1969 in Mumbai, Maharashtra. In 2002 she has become the world’s number one shooter in 10m air rifle. In 2003, she won her first world cup in Milan and also scored 399 out of 400. The full name of Anjali Bhagwat was Anjali Ramakanta Vedpathak. She won more medals in 2002 commonwealth games. She won four gold medals. She was from the simple Marathi family in Mumbai.

Anjali Bhagwat

The famous athlete Carl Lewis was her childhood inspiration. She developed her interest in sports. She had her first shoot as a cadet in the National Cadet Corps (NCC). She was very much attracted towards the NCC. In order to get the good training in NCC, she joined the Kirti College in Mumbai. She started her shooting career at the age of 21. Within seven days she had participated in the National Championship in the year 1988, she won the silver medal for Maharashtra.

She had two siblings – one younger brother and one elder sister. She is very much interested in tennis and cricket games. She likes to eat a variety of foods and her favorite foods are fish, red wine and tandoori chicken. Her favorite place is Austria and she has visited many occasions. She regularly does the Yoga and meditation. Her mother was a good singer in All India Radio. Her sister is a good singer. She is very interested in reading books and enjoy herself.

Anjali Bhagwat’s Career

Anjali Bhagwat’s first coach was Sanjay Chakravarthy. He supports her and helps to improve her strength and strategy. She totally won 55 gold medals, 35 silver medals and 16 bronze medals in her domestic competitions which are unbeatable records.

She had participated in her first international event in the year 1995 in the SAF games. In 1999, she won her first international gold medal in the Commonwealth Championship. In this game, she won 3 gold medals and one silver medal in Air rifle, 3P individual and also the team event.

She is the one and only women who won the gold medal in World cup for India. Her idol competitor is Galkina Lioubov representing Russia. She had undergone the training to the Laszlo Szucsak in December 1999. Then he became a coach for the Indian shooting team. She personally approached the Laszlo after watching his excellent work with the Malaysian shooting squared.  In the 2000 Sydney Olympics, she got a wildcard entry and went as one of the finalists.

She trained herself from the year 2001 to 2004, even though she becomes the world’s number one shooter in 2002. Laszlo had joined the national shooting squad in the year 2006 as a coach. After that, she got training from him till 2008. After 2008, Stanislav Lapidus has become the coach for the national squads appointed by the Indian National Army. The many other shooting sports like world championship has more value when compared to the Olympics. She became a champion of champions in the year 2002 which was the best event in her life. She is still the one and only women who won this title.

Achievements of Anjali Bhagwat

  • In the year 1991, she got a Shree Shiv Chattrapati Award
  • In the year 1993, she got a Vasantrav Naik Pratishthan Puraskar award
  • In the year 2000, she got an Arjuna award
  • In the year 2002, she got the Indo-American Society Young Achiever award
  • In the year 2003, she got the Rajiv Gandhi Khel-Ratna Award
  • In the year 2003, She also got a Times Group Maharashtra Shaa award, Hero Indian Sports award – Best sportswomen, HISA Sports Women of the year, HISA shooter of the year.
  • In the year 2004, she won the HISA shooter of the year award
  • In the year 2005, she got a GR8 women achievers award, Teacher’s Achievement award
  • In the year 2006, she won the FIE Foundation National award.

She used the Feinwerkbau which is a German made rifle and she used this in her Air rifle events. She used this rifle only for 10m events. For the 50m events, she had used the 0.22 Walther. In 1993, the Bollywood actor, as well as a fellow shooter, gifted her kit. In 2000, the Hinduja Foundation officially sponsored her. In the year 2008, Mittal Champions Trust sponsored her. Hyundai Corporation also provides the best support to her training until the year 2004.

The Special Role of Anjali Bhagwat

She has joined the Sahara and Reliance to support the sports. She has participated in the function of hosting Commonwealth Games in the year 2010 along with other legends like Sunil Gavaskar. She has also participated as a special guest in Bournvita Quiz contest. In 2006 and 2010 commonwealth games, she has participated as an expert panel on CNN-IBN.

She also participated in many of the award-winning functions and also gave the inspirational speech. She has also participated in the government selection panels for both national and international awards like Arjuna award, Dronacharaya Award, Shiv Chhatrapati award etc.

Memorable Events in Her life

  • Anjali Bhagwat was the second Indian women who reach the final of the Olympics in the year 2000. Before her entry, P.T. Usha was the one and only Indian women who enter the finals of the Olympics.
  • The world cup finals which were held at Munchi, Anjali Bhagwat got the silver medal. She became the world’s number one ranked Women player in the year 2002. Also, she got the title of champions of champions.
  • Anjali Bhagwat won the 4 gold medals in 1998 and 2001 Commonwealth games. She got these victories only by the support of her coaches.

Anjali Bhagwat is the hard-working women and while shooting, she forgets everything and concentrates only on the aim of shooting. She made an unbeatable record in the Air rifle shooting. Currently, she is working in the Central Industrial Security Force as an Inspector. She got this job through the sports quota.

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