Top shooters may miss Commonwealth Games squad, says national coach

NEW DELHI - Some of the top shooters may miss the Commonwealth Games as the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) is not going to take past records and world rankings into consideration at the selection trials that started Wednesday at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune.

Going by the performance of some of the elite shooters at the recently held World Championships in Munich, where India won a gold and bronze, national coach Sunny Thomas feels that it won’t be surprising if the top shooters find it tough to make it to the final squad for the Commonwealth Games.

“I don’t want to take names, but I want to make it clear that some of the top names will surely miss out on the Commonwealth Games. Some of the big names, who have done well in the last Commonwealth Games, have not done well in the last two years,” Thomas told IANS.

At the World Championships, rifle shooter Tejaswini Sawant became the first Indian woman to win a gold after she set a world record equalling score in the 50m rifle prone event and world No.2 Gagan Narang won the bronze in the 10 metre air rifle event.

But Beijing Olympic medallist Abhinav Bindra finished 25th in his pet 10 metre air rifle event. Bindra has also fallen in the world rankings and is lying at the 40th spot.

Former world champion and world No.4 Manavjit Singh Sandhu finished 68th in the trap event and in the double trap, former world record holder and world no.5 Ronjan Sodhi was 23rd while world No.10 Vikram Bhatnagar was 35th.

Pistol shooter Samresh Jung, who was nick named Gold Finger after his exploits in the previous edition at Melbourne, has failed to live up to the expectations in the last four years and finished 16th in the 25 metre standard pistol event. Jung, world No.25, was also adjudged as the best athlete in Melbourne with five golds. World no.10 Omkar Singh finished 51st way behind Jung.

Without naming any names, Thomas said that some of the “big names” have failed to live up to their reputation.

“We had high hopes at the World Championships but some of the elite shooters disappointed us. We are having a four day selection trails and the selection criteria are very strict. We are not going to go by past records. Either you perform or you are out. I can also tell you that some of the top shooters who are now at their peak will also find it tough,” he said.

“It is not possible to hold on to your performance. There are some shooters who had already peaked and it won’t be possible for them to put on the same performance that they were giving in the last one month at the camp. Shooters who know when to peak have a good chance of making the cut,” he said.

NRAI secretary-general Baljeet Sethi also concurred and said that with government funding the training of the shooters, the federation will be accountable to the government for the results.

“We don’t want to be on the wrong side. The government has given us money for the training of the shooters and we have to be clear with our selection process. The message is simple we want results. It does not matter if any particular shooter is left out, we have to go by the set rules,” he said.

The shooters are not able to train here at the Karni Singh Shooting Range, venue for Commonwealth Games that is yet to be finished, but coach Thomas feels that the Indians will not lose the home advantage.

“We will only come to Delhi once the Games Village opens for the athletes. Ten days of practice at the Karni Singh will be enough for our shooters. It is same for us in international events as well. We don’t reach the venue a month in advance even for the World Cups and World Championships,” he said.