Exclusive: India's next big thing in shooting? How Olympian dad's pep talk turned Adriyan Karmakar's slump into World Cup medal
Adriyan Karmakar
NEW DELHI: At one point not so long ago, Adriyan Karmakar, now 20, found himself quietly drifting away from the sport that had been part of his life for as long as he could remember.
The child who once gleefully collected empty shells from his father's rifle practice began to feel the weight of monotony, especially while shooting in the 10m air rifle category, a discipline he found increasingly "boring".
The spark seemed to dim further as practice sessions became less frequent, focus waned, and motivation dulled.
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"Around 2018, I was pretty worn out with 10-meter, and I was being careless. I wasn't practising enough. I wasn't focusing," Adriyan tells TimesofIndia.com during an interaction facilitated by the Reliance Foundation.
Then the words of his father, Joydeep Karmakar, brought him back.
The senior Karmakar, a celebrated shooter who missed out on an Olympic medal by a whisker in 2012, reminded his son of a simple truth: if you're going to do it, give it your all.
'He said, 'I'm not forcing you to shoot. You can do anything you want. You can do anything, any job or anything. If you're shooting, then give it your all, or if you're doing it as a hobby, you tell me, then you can do it as a hobby. But if you're doing it professionally, you have to give it your all.
Otherwise, there's no point,' Adriyan recalls.
A younger version of Adriyan had no reply that day; he only listened. Carefully. Seven years later, that rediscovered passion has translated into international success.
Last month, Adriyan made a remarkable debut at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany, where he secured a silver medal in the 50m rifle prone event.
In doing so, he became the first Indian to open the country's medal account at the prestigious competition.
His aggregate of 626.7 points, after 60 shots, was just 0.3 shy of the gold won by Sweden's Jesper Johansson.
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'It's definitely a great feeling to win a medal for my country, especially my first World Cup medal,' Adriyan says, his voice steady.
In a sport as technical as shooting, equipment can make or break a performance. With Adriyan, the struggles that came before Suhl included a faulty jacket and a minor, but nagging, issue with the rifle's bolt spring had thrown him off his rhythm during training.
'My old jacket was giving me trouble, so I had to get a new one. It's a canvas and leather jacket that helps prevent injury and gives stability within the rules. It took time to adjust and find the right feel again. It was a scary phase because I was shooting badly, but I figured it out. The rifle also had an issue, a broken spring in the bolt that ejects the bullet, so we had to fix that too,' the 20-year-old shooter stated.
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Interestingly, Adriyan's rifle once belonged to his father.
Far from feeling burdened by the legacy, he sees it as an advantage. 'I grew up with my father, so it was more of an advantage than a disadvantage. He had deep knowledge about shooting and helped build a strong mindset for sports.'
While Joydeep remains his primary coach, Adriyan adheres to an open-minded approach: "My father is my coach, but that doesn't mean I don't learn from others. I try to gather information from everyone, coaches, shooters, anyone, and use what helps me,' he explains.
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On a lighter note, he has grown used to the many ways people stumble over his name.
'A lot of people call me different things. Many can't say Adriyan, so they say 'Ad-rian' or something else. I've made my peace with it,' he laughs, adding that it's actually pronounced "Od-rian".
But whether it's generally pronounced right or not, what matters to 'Od-rian' is what he makes of the name on the shooting range.
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