After drawing blank in Rio and Tokyo, shooting fraternity cautiously happy post Paris
Chateauroux, Aug 3 (PTI) The Indian shooting contingent's biggest-ever medal haul at the Olympics, after drawing a blank in the previous two editions in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, definitely calls for celebration but the fraternity is treading cautiously with an eye already on the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
All of India's medal at the Paris Olympics have come via shooting thus far and there is a slight possibility of increasing the medal count to four by the time the competition ends on Monday.
The squad has also overcome the mental barrier that prevented Manu Bhaker and Co from excelling on the biggest stage.
The highlight of the campaign has been Manu's two medals, the second one shared with Sarabjot Singh in the 10m pistol mixed team.
Fielding a record 21-member team at the Chateauroux Shooting Range, India has made six finals, including two near medal misses in 10m air rifle with Arjun Babuta finishing a painful fourth and Manu missing out on a third medal by the narrowest of margins in 25m pistol on Saturday.
The training and competition schedule was robust and held in multiple countries. The team and personal coaches kept their differences aside for a change to work on the common objective of producing medallists at the mega event.
There have been some disappointments too with the biggest one coming in the women's 50m rifle three positions as Sift Kaur Samra and Anjum Moudgil failed to reach the final.
"India is the biggest county and they doing well is very important for the shooting world. Big improvement for India means big improvement for the world. It has got three medals here, maybe they increase it to six at LA28," International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) president Luciano Rossi told PTI after watching Manu's 25m pistol final.
"Since India and China are the two biggest markets, we are also seeing if India can host some qualification events for LA. We will also be doing a World Cup in India soon," Rossi added.
Raninder Singh, who headed the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) for more than a decade, expected six medals from the contingent but would take the three considering the failure in Rio and Tokyo.
"Nobody would believe me but I strongly felt that we should have had six medals. I still think we have outside chance in men's 25m rapid. We have already broken the glass ceiling. If it was not for COVID-19 during the Tokyo Games, this (run in Paris) would have been the performance in Tokyo.
"And it is not just a question of Manu, she has done brilliantly. But look at the overall team performance with finals in six events.
"Three positions women was a setback, in shotgun I was not expecting too much, they qualifying was an achievement," Raninder told PTI.
Will not have team for LA if junior program is not brought back under federation fold ==================================================== The shooters will go on a well-deserved break after a gruelling campaign here but both Raninder and Manu's personal coach Jaspal Rana, who has been a national coach in the past, stressed on the importance of bringing back the junior program under NRAI's control.
NRAI's junior program had to be scrapped to make way for central government-run Khelo India Games.
The current lot is reaping the rewards of being around for a long time but experts like Rana and Raninder predicted doom for LA28 campaign if the federation did not get complete control of the development program.
"If you want a team for Los Angeles you better give my junior program back. Let NRAI run it and call it Khelo India and whatever you want? But if they (the government) are going to do it, we won't have a team for Los Angeles.
"Nothing is coming out of Khelo India neither at the national nor at the international level," Raninder said.
"If you want to train an athlete in shooting, you don't give him 1000 cartridges to shoot every day. He shoots 100 a day and is monitored and mentored correctly. Everybody is a coach in India," said the former president. PTI BS AH AH
