New Delhi, Grief-stricken double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker's father, Ram Kishan, remembers Jaspal Rana as a coach who brought much-needed discipline and a results-oriented approach into his daughter's life, helping make her a champion shooter.
Rana, 49, died on Thursday following a brief illness after battling cardiac complications. One of India's finest pistol shooters, Rana made a successful transition to coaching and played a pivotal role in guiding Manu to her historic twin bronze medals at the Paris Olympics.
"The biggest contribution Jaspal Rana made to Manu's shooting career was instilling discipline, focus, hard work and a result-oriented approach. He was a good coach. His training imparted to Manu was excellent. It is a huge tragedy that he left the world like this. We are extremely saddened by what has happened," Kishan told PTI on Saturday.
No one thought he would leave like this. What he used to say to Manu was: work hard and have faith in yourself. Be confident in yourself. You have fighting spirit. You can do it. And you will do it. He was, you know, a hard taskmaster but good at heart. Hard from outside and soft from inside. He was a legendary shooter and a result-oriented coach. And a very strict and disciplined person," said Kishan.
I would say that Jaspal was very strict. He used to scold constantly. And he used to get angry like a little kid. If you didn't listen to him, he would get angry. But he was strict. And Manu preferred a strict and disciplined life.
Asked what Manu had told him since news of Rana's demise broke, Kishan said: "She is not able to talk right now. Whenever I call her, she picks up the phone and says, 'I will talk to you later, Papa.' And, you know, with a personal loss, it takes time. Let her recover fully and then she will decide what she needs and how we can help."
Recalling Rana's strict and disciplined coaching methods, he said: "Many times, Manu would be told to reach the range at 6 . If the range was closed and the guards had locked it, we would ask them to open it. They used to do that."
Kishan disclosed the cause of the rift between Manu and Rana in 2021.
Actually, two or three months before Tokyo , Jaspal suddenly said that he will not coach Manu. There were some issues going on. Manu had qualified for two Olympic events . She wanted to compete in both. Jaspal wanted her to drop out of 25m pistol event," he recalled.
That had a lot of effect on Manu. Her matches were also going very badly. She didn't know whether she should continue or not. She was a teenager then. She wanted to become a doctor or an engineer. She wanted to become an IAS officer. Manu was thinking about whether she should continue or not. That kind of thing was going on.," he realised the situation and said, 'Let's do it together.' Manu competed in both events in Paris. Rana supported her and told her that she could do it. From that point on, Manu's form improved.
What Manu realised was that if there discipline, everything is possible. If you understand these things, then everything else becomes easy," he concluded.
