Coach Sanjay Chakrabarty receives Dronacharya award

Bengaluru, August 25: A Bengali sportsperson from Maharastra is going to be bestowed with Dronacharya award. Is he popular in the Indian sports fraternity?

There is a doubt. But at the same time it is reality that this Dronacharya awardee has constructed such an amazing bio-data as a coach that is supposed to create an exceptional feat in the field of Indian sports.

He is Sanjay Chakrabarty, the rifle shooting coach from Mumbai. Till date under his coaching, some names in the field of Indian rifle and pistol shooting have shined. They are Anjali Bhagwat, Gagan Narang, Suma Surur, Ayonika Paul and Dipali Despande.

One has to do hard work to remember whether any coach in other discipline under Olympics sports has such amazing number of renowned students! Still the 75-year old coach seems to be extremely humble.

Speaking over phone from Mumbai He said recently, "I have done nothing. I only worked as their observer. It was their mettle that they proved it and excelled in the international field."

Amidst the names Gagan Narang and Anjali Bhgwat have also received the Rajib Khel Ratna.

Sanjay was born and his study also took place in Uttar Pradesh. Then he went to Mumbai with father who was an employee of Indian Railway.

After completing studies the coach joined Indian navy as an employee and there he started learning shooting. He participated in the senior national championship for the first time when he was already 30 years old!

Even he had represented the Indian team in SAFF Games. In his playing days Sanjay had expressed desire to learn coaching and even during a tournament he had habit of studying on coaching.

Sanjay lamented, "I have toured abroad with Indian team as a coach. But I have never been part of Olympics bound Indian team."

Gagan Narang and Anjali, both were ecstatic when asked for their comments on the coach. Anjali said, "I have trained under him for 10 years. He deserved Dronacharya award long before."