Tokyo bound shooter Saurabh Chaudhary back in training after recovering from COVID-19

Star shooter Saurabh Chaudhary who came in contact with the coronavirus has now recovered and has also started light training at his house in Meerut.

“Now that my younger brother has recovered, he has started light training,” his elder brother Nitin Chaudhary told The Times of India.

The 18-year-old shooter booked his ticket for the Tokyo Olympics when he clinched the top podium spot at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in 2019. He was in scintillating form at the recent ISSF Shooting World Cup 2021 in New Delhi where he grabbed Silver at the 10m Air Pistol and Gold medals in the 10m Mixed team event with Manu Bhaker and Air Pistol Men’s team event with the likes of Shahzar Rizvi and Abhishek Verma.

Chaudhary returned home right after the event and complained about weakness and pain in his eyes. Hence his family members thought it was some seasonal cold. But after carrying out the tests he was positive for COVID-19 which came as a shock for his family members as he had none of the symptoms of the disease like loss of smell and taste, fever etc.

“He (Saurabh) Chaudhary played his last event at the shooting World Cup on March 22, after which we returned home to Meerut the next day. Saurabh later complained of some weakness and pain in his eyes. He didn’t show any Covid-related symptoms like fever, low oxygen level or loss of smell and taste. Overall, he looked fine,” Nitin revealed.

Although he did not show signs of COVID-19 his family made sure to get him tested for their own satisfaction and the reports were a shocker to them.

“Still, we didn’t want to take any chance with the virus and went for the precautionary RT-PCR testing in Meerut for our own satisfaction. It was around March 28-29 that his sample was collected and it came out positive for Covid the next day to our surprise.

“Honestly, the report came as a shocker to us. We were pretty sure that it won’t be Covid but some seasonal flu. We weren’t sure if he got infected during the World Cup. After his positive report, other family members, too, got themselves tested and thankfully, everyone else returned negative. After completing his self-isolation period, he was tested again for Covid around April 7-8 and, this time, he came out negative,” he added.

Chaudhary is one of India’s major hopes in the Tokyo Olympics of clinching a Gold medal. Hence his health concerns made sports lovers of this country very sad. However, his family did not let his emotions get the better of him and kept him very cheerful and supported him throughout.

“During his isolation time, the family members kept on motivating him that ‘you don’t have to worry about the virus and this can happen to anyone. We told him that the ‘important part is to remain calm and stress-free. With the Olympics around, it’s important to keep his spirits high,” Nitin said.

The upcoming Tokyo Olympics will be his first appearance at the Summer Games and hence there will be nerves. But considering his performances on the world stage at this tender age a lot will be expected from the 18-year-old boy from Meerut.