PUNE: Amol Deokule knows the value of representing the country at a global stage. While the former shooter himself couldn’t play at the highest level, his dream is being fulfilled by his daughter Ankita. Amol, now a US citizen, is happy to see Ankita make it to the US squad for the Munich World Cup that begins on May 24. Ankita will be representing the US in women’s 25m sports pistol event.Ankita is the second shooter of Indian origin to be part of the US team after Suman Sanghera, who represented the nation at many international competitions. Suman is also part of the team for Munich.
“It is a moment of pride for me. Representing my country at the highest level is like a dream coming true. I am looking forward to giving my best at a competition which will see the best of the sport,” Ankita told TOI from Ohio. Ankita will be participating in the event where one of her favourite shooters, Manu Bhaker, will also shoot. “I have huge respect for Manu, I saw her 25m match at the Paris Games. I am excited to shoot in Munich,” she said.Ankita was born in the US while her father Amol moved to the country in the early 2000s. An IT professional, Amol was a shooter and had participated in the national level competition before giving up the sport for career. “I was born and brought up in Mumbai and represented Maharashtra in 10m air rifle events in the late 1990s. But then I had to give up the sport for my career,” he said.Amol says he didn’t think this far when he introduced Ankita to shooting post the Covid-19 outbreak. “After the Pandemic outbreak, I wanted to start shooting again. My friends here, who used to shoot rifle, switched to pistol. Even I thought of resuming the sport but this time with pistol. I used to take my daughters Ankita and Anjali to the range. Ankita developed interest and started shooting air pistol in 2021 and later picked up 25m sports pistol in early 2023,” he said, adding, “She started participating in the state-meets in the same year and her game improved when she joined the Ohio State University pistol team and started training under 1996 Atlant Games silver medallist Emil Milev..”