Abhishek Verma: A Lawyer, A Shooter and top medal prospect for Tokyo Olympics


Abhishek Verma: A Lawyer, A Shooter and top medal prospect for Tokyo Olympics

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At the Asian Games 2018, India discovered not one but two world-class air pistol shooters. Both were making their international debuts at the Games. One was the teenage prodigy Saurabh Chaudhary who won gold on debut, the other was late bloomer Abhishek Verma, the bronze medallist.

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Born on 1st August 1989, Abhishek Verma only picked up sports shooting as a hobby in 2017. Before that he was content to be a computer science engineer-turned-lawyer (his father is a High Court judge). Once his talent was apparent to coaches, his rise from hobby shooter to top ranked Indian was meteoric. Just one year later, he was selected for the Indian squad for the 2018 Asian Games. The rest is history.

Since then he has given tough competition to Saurabh in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol Event. He won 2 individual ISSF World Cup golds in 2019, securing the Tokyo 2020 quota in the process. At the 2019 Asian Championships, he won an individual silver and the AP Mix gold. He is currently ranked World No.2 in the ISSF rankings.

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After the news of the Olympic Games postponement, Abhishek has decided to take up law practice again, focusing on cyber-crime. He intends to balance his law career with his ‘top priority’ which is shooting.

We at FirstSportz wish him a very happy birthday and success in his future endeavours.

Also Read: Abhishek Verma in the surge of dealing with cases related to cybercrime