Twice bitten, Indian shooters start again with 2024 Paris Olympics the big target

Indian shooters will hope a fresh start to the new Olympic cycle, at the year’s first World Cup (rifle/pistol) in Cairo from February 26, leads to rich pickings at the 2024 Paris Games after two successive barren outings.

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Much was expected from the shooting contingent at the Tokyo Olympics, but despite the pre-event hype, the young shooters who were exceptional in every international event in the build-up crumbled under pressure at Tokyo’s Asaka Shooting Range. The 15-member team that competed in 10 events returned without a medal. The shooters also didn’t medal at 2016 Rio.

In the months that followed the Tokyo Games, everything from team selection to preparation came in for scrutiny.

The new cycle will be a start from scratch. Focus will be on their performances in a fresh season packed with big events—Asian Games in Hangzhou from September 9 and the ISSF world championships in Cairo from October 10, which will offer quota places for the Olympics.

Only five from the 13 rifle and pistol shooters at the Tokyo Olympics made it to the World Cup team announced recently, and it will be an opportunity for the younger brigade to make an impact in the absence of the star shooters. The team will prepare at the national camp, which begins at the Karni Singh Range here on Thursday. Since last month’s selection trials was postponed because of the spread of the new Covid variant, the team had to be selected based on performances at the senior national championships.

From among the Tokyo Olympians, Saurabh Chaudhary, Divyansh Panwar, Aishwary Pratap Tomar, Sanjeev Rajput and Rahi Sarnobat have kept their places.

A committee of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), which brainstormed over the Tokyo debacle, has fine-tuned its selection policy, restricting participation in international events and keeping the focus solely on the Olympics.

The four World Cups in a year, in which Indian shooters win a clutch of medals each time, will serve purely as preparatory competition towards Paris. One shooter can compete in only two World Cups in a season (only in exceptional circumstances will the selection committee allow a third World Cup). The idea is to keep the top shooters fresh and hungry for major competitions, while giving opportunities to more shooters and evaluating performances at the big stage. NRAI is yet to hire coaches, including foreign experts. The process has started and is likely to be finalised by next month.

Considering the talent pool in India, the race to book a berth in the Indian squad, especially in pistol and rifle, is intense.

While the 25-member World Cup squad would look to make a mark straightaway, it will also be a good opportunity for them to get used to a new scoring format introduced by world body, ISSF.

New brigade

The likes of Shreya Agrawal, Esha Singh and Rudranksh Balasaheb Patil, who have won medals at junior internationals and pushed the top shooters during the selection trials for Tokyo, will be keen to make the opportunity count.

Agrawal was in the reserves for Tokyo in women’s 10m air rifle. It’s an event where Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela rose to world No 1 and Anjum Moudgil was also in the mix for Tokyo. Agrawal has been a constant presence behind them in the last two years, winning many international medals as a junior since 2017.

The 21-year-old holds two junior world records. She shot 252.5 at the Asian Airgun championships in 2019 in the final, bettering the mark of China’s Ruozhu Zhao. She was also part of the team (with Elavenil and Mehuli Ghosh) that shot a world record score (1883.3) in Suhl, Germany that year. At the 2018 junior world championships, Agrawal won two bronze medals, in the individual and mixed team events.

At the senior nationals in Bhopal in December, she had the best qualification score of 631.4. Though she finished with a bronze in the final, Agrawal topped the rankings on the basis of her qualification score. The final was won by Delhi’s Rajshree Sancheti, who with Aayushi Gupta are the other shooters in a new look women’s air rifle team. Elavenil and Chandela did not finish in the top eight.

Esha Singh

Pistol shooter Esha, only 17, also made her mark with medals at the junior international level. She has been making waves in domestic competitions since she was 13. A consistent performer, she has been giving tough competition to Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker. Esha recently won two silver medals at the junior world championships in Lima, Peru. They included the 10m air pistol silver behind Bhaker. She topped the qualification in senior nationals (582) and won bronze. She has been selected for the air pistol and 25m pistol events. Bhaker was unfortunate to narrowly miss out on both teams.

In sports pistol, Esha and another teenager Rhythm Sangwan, who shot a high score of 585, will be part of the team with the seasoned Rahi Sarnobat.

Rudrakansh Patil

Patil came into prominence by winning gold at the Asian championships in Doha in 2019. At the 2021 junior world championships in Lima, Patil won silver in 10m air rifle. He extended his good form at the nationals, winning silver behind former world No 1 Panwar. Both are in the men’s air rifle team with Bengal’s Srinjoy Dutta, who was third in qualification. Patil and Dutta will look to make their big break count while Panwar will have a lot to prove after his Tokyo Olympics showing.

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